CHAP. XIII.] PLEISTOCENE EPOCH. 299 



subsidence ; the downward movement continued, and the 

 area of land was gradually reduced, the sea advanced 

 further and further up the valley of the English Channel 

 and over the plain of the North Sea, till at length the 

 plateau of the Dogger Bank was converted into an island, 

 and the waters met across the watershed which we now 

 call the Straits of Dover. As above mentioned, we may 

 infer that the final separation of England and France took 

 place before all the wild animals which now exist in Europe 

 had reached the western coasts of that continent, or at any 

 rate before they had occupied the British area in such 

 numbers as to become permanent colonists. 



It was probably to this subsidence, and the changes of 

 geography and climate which it brought about, that the 

 extinction of the mammoth and its associates was due. It 

 must be remembered that the fauna associated with Neo- 

 lithic man is a direct continuation of the fauna of Palaeo- 

 lithic time, the differences consisting only in the absence 

 of certain species (by extinction or migration) and in the 

 presence of certain domesticated animals introduced by 

 man. 



We now come to the phenomena of buried forests, and to 

 the consideration of the final movements which brought 

 about the existing relations of sea and land. In the first 

 place, I would deprecate the use of the term "Forest 

 period " in the sense of any special and distinct Post-glacial 

 epoch. Europe was doubtless clothed with forests through- 

 out the Pleistocene period wherever and whenever con- 

 ditions were suitable for the growth of forest trees ; in all 

 probability, too, dense forests nourished in the southern 

 part of England during the time of its occupation by 

 Palaeolithic man, and at any rate during the whole period 

 of subsidence which has been described above. The relics 

 of the ancient forests which are now found beneath our 

 bogs and fenlands, and at various levels around our coasts, 



