154 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



the north. In speaking of the northern ones, he had of 

 course chiefly the German deposits in view. It is in 

 one of the oldest pleistocene deposits in Germany 

 that the isolated instance, referred to above, of the 

 occurrence of the Barren-ground Reindeer, near Berlin, 

 has been noted. 



There is still a further point which illustrates the 

 supposition that the Barren-ground Reindeer was a 

 more ancient inhabitant of Europe than the Wood- 

 land one. The latter in all Central European stations 

 (in fact almost wherever it occurs fossil) is asso- 

 ciated with the remains of the typical inhabitants 

 of Siberia, such as the Glutton, Sousliks, Lemmings, 

 and others; but in the deposits in which the Barren- 

 ground Reindeer have been found in South-western 

 France, no other Arctic mammal finds a place. 

 Again, in Irish deposits none of the Siberian 

 migrants are found. The only explanation of this 

 remarkable fact is that the two varieties of the 

 Reindeer have come to Europe by different routes. 

 We have learned already from the observations of 

 Mr. Murray that there are evidences of the existence 

 of a former land-connection between North America, 

 Greenland, and Spitsbergen. Professor Petersen 

 tells us that, according to recent surveys, a high 

 submarine plateau with a sharp fall of 1000 fathoms 

 towards the Atlantic Ocean begins from Northern 

 Norway and is continued as far as Spitsbergen. 

 Several islands, such as Bear Island, King Charles 

 Land, and others, arise from this plateau, and these 



