STEJNEGER] © ANIMALS AND PLANTS OF NORWAY 505 
escence of glacial activity, a mere hump on the downward curve 
of the general decline from the megaglacial apex. It may have 
been due not so much to a lowering of temperature as to additional 
precipitation caused by the increase of the area of the sea to the east 
as the land sank more rapidly and deeper in that direction. If such 
be the case, it may only cause confusion to apply the term “ inter- 
glacial ’* to this particular stage which may not be synchronous with 
similar, but more protracted and better differentiated intervals else- 
where.? There are certain indications that the phenomena of rise 
and fall, severe and mild climatic conditions, along the northwestern 
periphery and those in the south and east, so far from being simul- 
taneous, may have been alternating. 
This reservation is necessary since the land bridge alluded to above 
corresponds to the stage hinted at as “interglacial” by Brogger 
(Norges Geol. Undersdg., No. 31, 1900, p. 105; Norge i 19 
Aarhundr. 1, 1900, p. 23) by Hansen (Landn. Norge, 1904, p. 281 
seqv.), and by Wille (Nyt Mag. Naturv. xvii1, 1905, p. 332). 
Whether the Scotch invasion can be assumed to have taken place 
during this period and the animals and plants survived the neo- 
glaciation depends, of course, on whether the climate during the 
latter can be supposed to have been temperate enough for all the 
species, 7. question to be discussed further on (p. 510). I myself 
am inclined to the opinion that it was, and that the whole biota con- 
tinued its existence in western and northwestern Norway through- 
out the neoglacial stage, but I admit that there is a possibility of 
a reéstablishment of the land bridge in postglacial times. The 
following considerations explain the train of reasoning upon which 
such a possibility appears plausible. 
After the ice of the second glaciation began to melt off, the un- 
burdened land started to rise again. The Swedish geologists have 
shown that in eastern and southern Sweden this elevation so far 
from being uniform was interrupted by long periods of repeated 
and gradually decreasing submergences, the maxima of which show 
considerable changes of level, thus the Ancylus depression reached 
*Tf the term be only used according to its original significance to any 
period between two glacial maxima, there can be no objection to its use, but 
the common application of it more specifically to layers intercalated between 
two glacial deposits or moraines renders its use in the present connection 
inexpedient. 
*It is worthy of note in connection with the above, that warm “ interglacial ” 
stages are now being discredited even in Scotland. See J. F. Jamieson, On 
the Interglacial Question, in Geol. Mag. (5), 111, December, 1906, pp. 534-536. 
