112 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



study and critical inquiry into its component ele- 

 ments. So great an authority on geographical 

 distribution might have given us more lucid state- 

 ments of his views on a variety of topics connected 

 with this subject. 



In speaking of the fauna of Ireland, Professor 

 Leith Adams, Professor Dawkins, and Mr. Alston are 

 evidently only thinking of the mammals, which form 

 but a very small proportion of it. The first-men- 

 tioned palaeontologist held that there was a land- 

 communication between Scotland and Ireland at the 

 close of the Glacial period, by which the greater 

 portion of the mammals that had found their way to 

 the former country crossed to the latter (p. 100). 

 And, he continues, the severance between the two 

 countries must have taken place before the slow- 

 travelling Mole, the Beaver, the forest-haunting Elk 

 and the Roebuck had time to arrive. 



Much in the same spirit are Mr. Alston's remarks 

 on this subject (p. 5). " The absence from the known 

 fossil fauna of Scotland and Ireland of most of the 

 characteristic post-pliocene English animals, shows 

 that the northward migration of these forms was slow, 

 gradually advancing as the glacial conditions of 

 the northern parts of our islands decreased in in- 

 tensity. Thus it is not difficult to suppose that the 

 Hedgehog, Ermine, Badger, Squirrel, and Mountain 

 Hare may have found their way through southern 

 Scotland into Ireland long before they were able to 

 penetrate into the still sub-arctic regions of the High- 



