CHAP. XIII.] PLEISTOCENE EPOCH. 301 



difficulty of understanding bow the existing flora of the 

 Faroe Islands, which is of Scandinavian origin, could have 

 reached them without a land connection with northern 

 Europe in Post-glacial times. Mr. A. R. Wallace, however, 

 has shown that the distribution of plants can be effected 

 by other means than those necessary for the distribution 

 of terrestrial animals, and that it is very unsafe to draw 

 inferences from island floras similar to those which may 

 be drawn from their mammalian faunas. His remarks on 

 the flora of the Azores ] are very convincing, and he con- 

 cludes with saying that, " we have in such facts as these a, 

 complete disproof of the necessity for those great changes, 

 of sea and land which are continually appealed to by those 

 who think land connection the only efficient means of 

 accounting for the migration of animals and plants." 



The Scandinavian character of the Faroe flora can be 

 explained by other means than the great elevation which 

 would have been required to unite it to Scotland, and we 

 may therefore dismiss Professor G-eikie's view of the geo^ 

 graphy of this period as quite unwarranted by the facts, 

 which are known to us. Professor Dawkins stands on 

 safer ground when he assumes that the coast-line during 

 the occupation of Britain by Neolithic man coincided 

 roughly with the 10-fathom contour, but, as already stated* 

 there is good reason for believing that some of the Cornish 

 forests date from a time when the sea did not reach beyond 

 the line of 15 fathoms, and whether the Neolithic invasion 

 took place under these geographical conditions, or at an 

 earlier epoch, it is certain that there was a time when the 

 position of the English and French coasts was approxi-. 

 mately that indicated by the inner line on the map x 

 Plate XV. 



It is equally clear that in the south of England subsidence 



1 " Island Life," 1880, p. 479. 



