CHAP, v.] PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA IN BRITAIN. 123 



Pleistocene Mammalia in Britain before, during, and 

 after the Glacial Period. 



The Pleistocene mammalia might reasonably be ex- 

 pected, from the manner in which the Asiatic migration 

 took place, to have been in Europe before, during, and 

 after the Glacial period. As the ice advanced southwards 

 it pushed the arctic mammalia southwards, and caused 

 them to encroach on the temperate and southern mam- 

 malia. When it retreated northwards the animal life 

 swung northwards. These considerations, necessary from 

 the facts brought forward in the preceding pages, will be 

 found in the next chapter to be proved by a critical 

 examination of the river deposits and the contents of 

 caverns. 



From the large percentage of living species which we 

 have noted in the preceding chapter, we might have 

 inferred that the time was at hand for the arrival of 

 man. The greater part of the living European mam- 

 malia were present, and the world was then in the stage 

 of evolution in which man might be expected to play 

 his part. In the next two chapters we shall see at what 

 stage of the Pleistocene age he appears, and we shall 

 examine the evidence from which it may be concluded 

 that there were two races the Eiver-drift men and 

 the Cave-men in Europe during the long series of ages 

 represented by the Pleistocene period. 



