THE FAUNA OF BRITAIN. IO/ 



times." On the contrary, I believe an almost un- 

 interrupted stream of migrants poured into the 

 British Isles before pliocene times from the south. 

 But what I thoroughly disagree with, is the remark 

 that our British land-fauna has been sent to the new 

 steppes that opened eastward. These are the more 

 or less arid portions of Eastern Europe. Professor 

 Cole no doubt has in mind those species of mammals 

 which I have included in what I called the Siberian 

 migration, and of which we have fossil evidence 

 in the late Tertiary deposits of Europe. It would 

 be impossible here to discuss this subject fully, 

 especially as I have done so in the subsequent 

 chapters; but, even if we had no geological record 

 whatsoever, the present range of the species in 

 question and their nearest relatives must convince 

 us that they could not have originated in Western 

 Europe. However, on the strength of the geological 

 evidence, Professor Nehring the only one who has 

 made this fauna his special study remarks (p. 228), 

 that there seems scarcely any doubt that this steppe- 

 fauna just referred to had come to us from the east. 

 Professors Boyd Dawkins, Brandt, and Lartet held 

 similar views. 



The theory that an ice-sheet stretched across a 

 narrow sea might be the means of aiding a fauna 

 across from the mainland to an island, is particularly 

 inapplicable to the British Islands. Neither Mr. 

 Kinahan nor Mr. Lamplugh, the two supporters of 

 this view, have, however, taken the trouble to apply 



