15 



seen the erect trunks of trees attached by their 

 roots to the original soil; these trees are covered 

 by a clay-bed containing thin layers of lignite ; 

 between the trunks of the trees and these lignites are 

 found cones of the scotch and spruce firs, the seeds of 

 the yew, the horn wort, Ceratophyllum demersum, 

 the seeds of the buck-bean Menyanthes trifoliata, the 

 Hazel, Corylus Avellana the white and yellow water- 

 lilies, and with them are found the teeth of elephas 

 antiquus and two other elephants, E. meridionalis 

 and E primigeneus, hippopotamus, ox, horse, stag, 

 elk, roebuck, Cervus poligniacius, Cervus verticornis, 

 two species of beaver, narwhal, walrus, a large 

 whale, &c. The vegetation taken alone does not 

 imply a temperature higher than that now prevail- 

 ing in the British Isles. Half the mammals are 

 extinct, the rest still survive in Europe. The discovery 

 of a glacial epoch, and subsequently that of a mild and 

 temperate climate, shews us that the greater part of 

 the temperate region was buried under ice at one period 

 and that at another, Greenland and the Arctic circle, 

 probably to the north pole, was not only free from ice, 

 but covered with a rich and luxuriant vegetation, when 

 Europe and the contour of its surface must have been 

 much the same as it is now. The geographical range 

 of the fluviatile and land-shells of the pleistocene 

 period, many of them being now confined to Scandinavia, 

 leans to the conclusion that the climate was still very 

 cold, especially in the winter. Of the mammalia the 

 reindeer and the musk sheep now confined within the 



