74 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



breeders of animals and those acquainted with zoo- 

 logical gardens know perfectly well that it is much 

 easier to keep a northern species in a southern 

 climate, than a southern species in a northern one. 

 If in a Central European deposit occur a mixture of 

 northern and southern forms of animals, the presence 

 of the latter is more remarkable than that of the 

 former. Logically, we should look upon the occurrence 

 of southern species in the north, therefore, as support- 

 ing the view that a mild climate had induced them 

 to travel northward. The only indication, indeed, 

 of the presence of a Monkey in the British Isles 

 in former times comes to us from the very same 

 strata which have also yielded the remains of the 

 Siberian mammals. 



Before I conclude the consideration of the pleisto- 

 cene fauna, it may be of interest to hear what 

 Mr. Lydekker, one of our highest authorities 

 on fossil mammals, has to say on this subject. 

 " The most remarkable feature connected with 

 this fauna is the apparently contradictory evidence 

 which it affords as to the nature of the climate 

 then prevalent. The Glutton, Reindeer, Arctic 

 Fox, and Musk-Ox are strongly indicative of 

 a more or less arctic climate; many of the Voles 

 {Micr<otus\ Picas (Lagomys), and Susliks {Sper- 

 mophilus\ together with the Saiga Antelope, 

 appear to point equally strongly to the prevalence 

 of a Steppe-like condition ; while the Hippopotamus 

 and Spotted Hyaena seem as much in favour of a 



