THE GLACIAL PEEIOD AND THE EARTH-MOVEMENT HYPOTHESIS. 233 



exist the relics of the Pleistocene flora and fauna met with in 

 extra- glacial regions would yet lead us to the conclusion that 

 after the close of the Pliocene period, extremely cold and very 

 genial climates alternated up to the dawn of the present. 

 Thus during one stage of the Pleistocene " clement winters 

 and cool summers permitted the wide diffusion and intimate 

 association of plants which have now a very different range. 

 Temperate and southern species like the ash, the poplar, the 

 sycamore, the fig-tree, the judas-tree, etc., overspread all the 

 low grounds of France as far north at least as Paris. It was 

 under such conditions that the elephants, rhinoceroses, and 

 hippopotamuses, and the vast herds of temperate cervine 

 and bovine species ranged over Europe, from the shores of the 

 Mediterranean up to the latitude of Yorkshire, and probably 

 even further north still, and from the borders of Asia to the 

 Western Ocean. Despite the presence of numerous fierce 

 carnivora — lions, hyeenas, tigers, and others — Europe at that 

 time, with its shady forests, its laurel-margined streams, its 

 broad and deep-flowing rivers, a country in every way suited 

 to the needs of a race of hunters and fishers — must have been 

 no unpleasant habitation for Paleolithic man." But during 

 another stage of the Pleistocene period, the climate of our 

 continent presented the strongest contrast to those genial 

 conditions. At that time " the dwarf birch of the Scottish 

 Highlands, and the Arctic willow, with their northern con- 

 geners, grew upon the low grounds of Middle Europe. 

 Arctic animals, such as the musk-sheep and the reindeer lived 

 then, all the year round, in the south of France; the mammoth 

 ranged into Spain and Italy ; the glutton descended to the 

 shores of the Mediterranean; the marmot came down to the 

 low grounds at the foot of the Apennines ; and the lagomys 

 inhabited the low-lying maritime districts of Corsica and 

 Sardinia. The land- and freshwater molluscs of many 

 Pleistocene deposits tell a similar tale : high alpine, boreal, 

 and hyperborean forms are characteristic of these deposits in 

 Central Europe ; even in the southern regions of our continent 

 the shells testify to a former colder and wetter climate. It 

 was during the climax of these conditions that the caves of 

 Aquitaine were occupied by those artistic men, Avho appear to 

 have delighted in carving and engraving."* Such, in brief, 

 is the testimony of the Pleistocene flora and fauna of extra- 

 glacial regions. It is from the deposits in those regions, 



* Prehistoric Europe, p. 67. 



