62 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



Dr. Kobelt believes that an arm of the Black Sea 

 communicated up till recent times along the lower 

 course of the Maritza with the Gulf of Saros. 

 It can be shown also that Sardinia and Corsica 

 formed part of the continent of Europe, and that 

 their present fauna and flora reached them by migra- 

 tion on land. 



The Russian naturalists, Brandt and Koppen, be- 

 lieved that at no very distant date a sea extended right 

 across Eastern Russia from the Caspian to the Arctic 

 Ocean, whilst Professor Boyd Dawkins expressed 

 himself in very similar language as follows (c, p. 35) : 

 " Before the lowering of the temperature in Central 

 Europe the sea had already rolled through the low 

 country of Russia, from the Caspian to the White 

 Sea and the Baltic, and formed a barrier to western 

 migration to the Arctic mammals of Asia." These 

 naturalists based their opinions on distributional 

 evidence, but additional facts will be brought 

 forward in the fifth chapter to substantiate these 

 views. 



These are some of the more important geographical 

 events which will be dealt with in detail in the subse- 

 quent chapters in connection with the history of the 

 migrations of the European fauna. 



A separate chapter has been devoted to the British 

 fauna and its origin, since it plays a very important 

 part in the evolution of that of our continent. So 

 essential is a thorough knowledge of this fauna, that 

 I think it would be difficult to understand, without 



