90 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. iv. 



The Retreat of the Quadrumana from Europe. 



The disappearance of the apes from Europe at the close 

 of the Pleiocene age is one of the most important facts 

 to be recorded in the history of the mammalia. In the 

 upper Meiocene the apes ranged as far north as Eppels- 

 heim, in the lower Pleiocene they were restricted to the 

 forests of the south of France, and in the upper Pleio- 

 cene to those of Italy. Their gradual southern retreat 

 and final extermination in Europe 1 are probably due to 

 a change in climate, to a lowering of the temperature, 

 which arrived at its maximum in the Pleiocene age. 



Evidence of Pleiocene Man in France and Italy 

 unsatisfactory. 



In dealing with the question pf the presence of man 

 in Europe, we have seen that he could not reasonably 

 have been expected to have been a member of faunas in 

 which the mammalia were represented solely by extinct 

 species. In the Pleiocene age there is no inherent im- 

 probability of man having been present, seeing that at 

 least one living animal shows that living forms had a foot- 

 ing among those which have become extinct. The family 

 of lemurs made its appearance both in Europe and in 

 America in the Eocene ; the apes, or Simiadce, in the 

 Meiocene. Did the next family in the classification of 

 the naturalists, or that of man, appear in Europe in the 

 Pleiocene? An affirmative answer to this question is 

 considered, by several eminent observers, to be given by 

 the discovery of human remains in Italy. 



The first to be noticed is a human skull, discovered 



1 The Barbaiy ape has been introduced into Gibraltar. 



