THE BRITISH MAMMALS PAST AND PRESENT. 85 



Sedgwick respectively, the last being the most noticeable on account 

 of the many forkings of its magnificent] antlers, which have more 

 points than those of any other member of the family. Among the 

 other land mammals were the wild boar, Sus scrofa its first appear- 

 ance an extinct Rhinoceros (R. ctruscus), the wild horse (Equus 

 caballus) its first appearance Steno's horse (E. stenonis), and three 

 elephants (Ekphas antiquus, E. meridionalis, and E. primigenius, this 

 being the first appearance of the mammoth). The Biscay or 

 Southern Right whale (Balcena australis) also appears for the first 

 time, as do the sperm whale, the narwhal, the porpoise, and the 

 dolphin. 



In the Pleistocene age. as revealed by the glacial groups of which 

 its deposits are mainly composed, the life of this area was not so 

 very much unlike what it was when the historic period began. The 

 advance and retirement of the glaciers have left their traces not only 

 on the rock structure, but on the fauna, which clearly indicates the 

 influence of the alternations of cold and warmth. As in America, 

 where the ice moved southwards into New England, and drove the 

 Arctic animals down for a time, so was it in Europe, where the rein- 

 deer was driven into Switzerland, the wolverene into the Auvergne, 

 arid the musk-ox into the Pyrenees ; and the British area, from its 

 position, experienced these alternations to the full, the result being 

 the wide range, climatically, of our Pleistocene mammals. Here we 

 have our first and only monkey (Macacus pliocenus), the lion (Felis 

 ho), the spotted hyaena (Hyana crocuta), now of South Africa, the 

 brown bear (Ursus arctus), which survived in this country into the 

 historic period), the grizzly bear (U. horribilis), now confined to 

 North America, and the cave-bear (U. spelczus) we met with in the 

 Forest Bed. Here are the polecat, the stoat, and the badger their 

 first appearances and the common seal, the ringed seal, and the 

 harp seal also their first appearances. Among the rodents are a 

 suslik (Spermophilus altaicus) from the Arctic Freshwater Bed at the 

 bottom of the series, and another species (Sp.erythrogenoidcs) from a 

 higher horizon. The beaver was there, as also were the common 

 domestic mouse, which has been everywhere since, the field vole 

 (Microtus agrestis), and the water vole, otherwise the water rat (M. 

 amphibius). Our wild ox (Bos taurus) was there, but of larger pro- 

 portions, so was the equally gigantic European bison (B. bonasus), so 

 were the musk-ox and, unexpectedly, the saiga antelope of the 

 Steppes (Saiga tartarica). The moose and reindeer put in their first 

 appearances, the latter to remain until after the Norman Conquest, 

 the red deer, as magnificently developed as the oxen, was there, as 

 were also Brown's fallow-deer (Cervus browni),the great Irish elk (C. 

 giganteus), and the roebuck. Among the other animals were the wild 

 boar and the surviving hippopotamus, the woolly rhinoceros (Rhino- 

 ceros antiquitatis), with two other species (R. leptorhinus and^. megar- 

 hinus), also with two horns ; the wild horse (Equus caballus), which 

 has not been found in the country since ; the three elephants, as in 

 the Forest Bed, the gigantic southern species (Ekphas meridionalis), 

 fifteen feet high, the straight-tusked species (E. antiquus), allied to 

 the present African elephant, and the mammoth (E. primigenius), 

 more of the Indian type, with the hairy coat suited to a colder 



