218 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



Mammoth and the other mammals whose remains 

 have been discovered on the New Siberian Islands 

 found their way there during one of the late inter- 

 glacial stages of the Ice-Age. But there is no 

 astonishment expressed by Professor Geikie at the 

 extraordinary change of climate which must have 

 occurred in Siberia to allow of such migrations. I 

 can find no very definite statement in this author's 

 work as to the nature of the climate in Europe during 

 those inter-glacial phases, but he remarks (p. 129) 

 " that the evidence of the Scottish inter-glacial beds, 

 so far as it went, did not entitle us to infer that 

 during their accumulation local glaciers may not 

 have existed in the Highland valleys." There is no 

 evidence, in other words, of the existence in Europe 

 of a milder climate than that prevailing at present. 

 Still less can there be any ground for the supposition 

 that the climate of the whole of Siberia ameliorated 

 to such an extent that forests and meadows could 

 develop as far north as the New Siberian Islands ; 

 for if the temperature in Europe was then about 

 the same as now, that of Siberia could not have 

 been vastly higher than it is at present. 



It is highly improbable, therefore, that a sufficiently 

 mild climate prevailed in the extreme north of 

 Siberia during the so-called later inter-glacial periods 

 to induce the mammals to which I have referred to 

 seek fresh pastures there, 



The late Professor Brandt, one of the highest 

 zoological authorities in Russia, was of opinion that 



