EFFECTS OF ICE AGE ON FAUNA 



43 



the drift, are rather problematical. Most, if not all, the occur- 

 rences of reindeer and musk ox bones lie within the drift area. 

 As already mentioned, animal remains have been met with in 

 caves and other deposits, close to the limits of the drift, and 

 supposed to belong to the Pleistocene Period, which seem to 

 indicate a climate somewhat milder than the present one. 



The most noted Pleistocene fossiliferous strata within the 

 drift area lie in Canada, and these contain largely the remains 

 of plants. Since the first place as tests of climate has gene- 

 rally been assigned to plants,* their testimony will be of 

 particular value in our present enquiries. These deposits have 

 been principally studied by Professors Coleman'f and Pen- 

 hallow. J Some are in the neighbourhood of Toronto near the 

 shores of Lake Ontario, others further west near the Moose 



id Albany Kivers, both of which empty their waters into 

 Hudson Bay. 



In dealing with the beds in the neighbourhood of Toronto, 

 Professor Coleman reports that those of Scarboro' Heights 

 contain mosses, diatoms, a few fresh-water shells and a con- 

 siderable number of elytra of beetles. According to Dr. 

 Scudder the latter, numbering twenty-nine species, are all 

 extinct, and related to species occurring in Lake Superior and 



[udson Bay regions, the fauna having a boreal aspect. The 

 fossils from the Don Eiver deposits were found to be sur- 



>risingly different. They seemed to point to a climate as 



rarm as that of Toronto, if not much warmer, while the forest 

 trees suggest a temperature far from glacial. Not a trace of 

 arctic fauna or flora could be discovered. It was con- 

 jluded, therefore, by Professor Coleman that both these series 

 )f beds were inter-glacial, that is to say, laid down during the 



iild phases which are supposed to have separated the in- 

 tsely arctic ones from one another. 



The plant remains from the other deposits were like those 

 )f Scarboro' Heights and Montreal. They were essentially of 



16 same character representing a vegetation similar to that 

 )f our own time, or perhaps even a little more severe. 



* Seward, A. C., " Fossil Plants as Tests of Climate," p. 10. 



t Coleman, A. P., " Glacial and Inter-glacial Deposits," pp. 625640. 



| Penhallow, I). P., " Pleistocene Flora of Canada," p. 77. 



