132 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. vi. 



artificial conditions, ranging, however, farther north- 

 wards on the Atlantic coast-line under the mild and 

 equable climate caused by the Gulf Stream. At Moret, 

 near Font ainbleau, it flourished in the Pleistocene age about 

 4 farther north, and is proved by its numerous leaves 

 and well-ripened fruits to have occupied an important 

 place in the forest-clad valley of the Seine south of Paris. 

 It was associated with ashes, sycamores, hoary poplars, 

 grey and crack willows, spindle-trees, box, Judas-tree, 

 and hazels. Ivy and clematis crept round the branches 

 and hung in festoons overhead, while below were luxuri- 

 ant clusters of the fronds of the hart's-tongue fern. The 

 presence of the Ficus carica and the Judas-tree in this 

 flora implies that the climate was equable, and that there 

 were no winter frosts, such as those which check their 

 growth so far north as Fontainbleau at the present time. 

 In the late stage of the Pleistocene the winters were far 

 more severe than at the present time in France and 

 Britain, and from the evidence of the section of the 

 Norfolk cliffs, there is reason to believe that there were 

 severe winter frosts in the period immediately succeeding 

 the Forest-bed. The forest of Moret, therefore, is referred 

 to an early stage of the Pleistocene, and taken to be the 

 equivalent of the pre -glacial forest of Norfolk. Here, 

 however, it will be noted that the northern types, such 

 as the Scotch fir, abound, while the southern are not 

 represented ; a difference which may be explained satis- 

 factorily by the difference of latitude between Moret and 

 Norfolk. As the evidence stands at present, the zone of 

 northern forests in which the conifers are abundant is 

 not met with at low elevations in France either in the 

 Pleiocene or in the early Pleistocene periods. 



The animals inhabiting the area of the Seine, while 



