THE PREPARATION OF THE EARTH FOR MAn's ABODE. 99 



Bramatherhnn. Noav we find tlie true horse, Eqinis* and 

 along with it the Hipparion, now extinct, which had three 

 toes, but only one, the middle one, touching the ground. 

 Now, too. we have the ox, with the cat, the hare, and the 

 mouse. The ^Je^ojntheciis and the Dolichopithecus Avere the 

 apes of the period. 



The flora of the Phocene epoch was very simiUir to that 

 of the present day in Engkiud, with the addition of one or 

 two subtropical plants, and towards the end of the period 

 the plants requiring most warmth disappeared, indicating a 

 loAvering of the temperature and an approximation to present 

 climatal conditions. Besides the present forest trees of 

 England, we find the buttercup, chickweed, dock, sorrel, 

 marsh marigold, the Osmunda vpgaUs, and many other plants 

 Avith which we are familiar. 



Although at the commencement of the Quaternary or 

 Human epoch the climate in this and more northern regions 

 was undoubtedly too rigorous for man, yet in more southern 

 latitudes, to which the ice-covering conditions of the 

 Glacial epoch did not extend, there would be no climatal 

 hindrance to his existence. On the return of more suitable 

 climatic conditions, man was undoubtedly living in these and 

 adjacent areas. Judging from the large number of flint 

 implements found in the Pleistocene gravels of England and 

 France, man seems to have been tolerably abundant in the 

 European regions soon after the departm-e of glacial 

 confhtious. 



Since that time, favouring conditions for man have 

 continued to increase, and profiting by these, man has made 

 advances, and by these advances has aided the progress of 

 favouring conditions. But with the preparation of the earth 

 for the earliest man, the simple human being, we have had 

 alone to do, and the changes that have taken place during 

 the Quaternary epoch are not, therefore, within the scope of 

 this essav. 



COXCLUSIOX. 



The records of the rocks which haA^e now been presentee],, 

 although briefly and quite disproportionately to the greatness 



* The Eqvus asiima, the ass of East Africa, has left its reniaiiisin the 

 Pleistocene cave deposits of India, tiiough not now living there. 



H 2 



