EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



kimos, seems highly plausible. Nothing can be 

 more probable than that, in early or middle 

 Pleistocene times, the Eskimos lived all about 

 the Arctic Circle, in Siberia and northern Eu- 

 rope as well as in North America ; that during 

 the coldest portions of the Glacial period they 

 found their way as far south as the Pyrenees, 

 along with the rest of the sub-arctic mammalian 

 fauna to which they belonged ; and that, as the 

 climate grew warmer again, and vigorous enemies 

 from the south began to press into Europe and 

 compete with them, they gradually fell back to 

 the northward, leaving behind them the innu- 

 merable relics of their former presence, which 

 we find in the late Pleistocene caves of France 

 and England. The Eskimos, then, are probably 

 the sole survivors of the Cave-men of the Pleis- 

 tocene period ; among the present people of 

 Europe the Cave-men have left no representa- 

 tives whatever. 



With the passing away of Pleistocene times, 

 further considerable changes occurred in the 

 geography of Europe and in its population. 

 Early in the Recent period the British Islands 

 had become detached from each other and from 

 the continent, and the North Sea and the Eng- 

 lish and Irish channels had assumed very nearly 

 their present sizes and shapes. The contour of 

 the Mediterranean, also, had become nearly 

 what it is now ; and in general such changes as 

 40 



