FAUNA AND FLORA OF YORKSHIRE. 191 



Thus we appear conducted to the conclusion that Yorkshire 

 contains evidence of two ancient periods, during which migra- 

 tions of plants and animals happened from the continent of Eu- 

 rope, bringing to us Scandinavian and German forms of life; 

 that these were separated by a period of oceanic overflow and 

 glacial temperature; and that since the last migration which 

 brought our Germanic flora and fauna the German Ocean has 

 been formed. If we carry out the inquiry with reference to the 

 south of England and to Ireland, we shall find reason to admit 

 that since that migration, the Straits of Dover have been cut, the 

 Irish Channel excavated, and even more extensive alterations in 

 physical geography occasioned*. 



To complete the series of life in Britain, Teutons followed the 

 archaic flora and fauna from Scandinavia and Germany, and 

 settled in a region full of the productions of the country they 

 had quitted ; even as to continue the analogy the Belgse fol- 

 lowed the Gallic flora to the south-east of England, and the 

 Iberi reached the southern districts of Ireland which had already 

 received the plants of the Asturias. At what point of postgla- 

 cial time the advent of man happened we cannot say. He has 

 left no monuments in the earliest of the deposits of even this the 

 latest geological period. Remains of men do occur in the more 

 recent deposits of this period, but such facts do not appear suffi- 

 cient to determine when the human race first penetrated to the 

 far west. 



Nothing yet positively ascertained by science forbids the con- 

 jecture that the fathers of the British race may have come by 

 land ; that coracles and canoes may have been the earliest ves- 

 sels which they navigated ; and that they might justly call 

 themselves, as Caesar says they did, " aborigines," in comparison 

 with the mercantile settlers of later days. 



We may contrast with this the popular tradition or bardic in- 

 vention which brings Hu the mighty, over the hazy sea, from 



* See Prof.E. Forbes "On the Geological Relations of the existing Fauna 

 and Flora of the British Isles." Mem. Geol. Survey, vol. i. 



