70 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. iv. 



CHAPTEK IV. 



BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL CHANGES IN NORTH-WESTERN 



EUROPE BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF MAN. 



THE PLEIOCENE PERIOD. 



British. Pleiocene Strata. Geography of Britain in the Pleiocene Age. 

 Evidence of Icebergs in the North Sea, off the Coast of Britain. 

 The Pleiocene Flora. Pleiocene Climate. Lower Pleiocene Mam- 

 malia of France. Upper Pleiocene Mammalia of France and Italy. 

 - Pleiocene Mammalia in Italy. Pleiocene Mammalia in Britain. 

 Important Characters of Fauna. The Development of Antlers 

 in the Deer. The Retreat of the Quadrumana from Europe. 

 Evidence of Pleiocene Man in France and Italy unsatisfactory. 



WE have seen in the two preceding chapters that man 

 had no place in the Eocene and Meiocene faunas, because 

 they present no traces of other living mammalian species. 

 In this chapter we shall see that one living species, if not 

 more, does occur in the Pleiocene strata of France and 

 Italy, and that therefore the improbability of man having 

 lived in Europe at that time is proportionally lessened. 

 It is, however, very unlikely that he will ever be found 

 in the Pleiocene strata of this country, because they are 

 either purely marine, or consist of freshwater accumula- 

 tions, which have been worked over and, for the most 

 part, destroyed by the action of the waves on the beach 

 during the depression of the land beneath the sea. 



