BOROPEAN GLACIAL DEPOSIAS. 247 
II. NORFOLKIAN (OR ELEPHAS-MERIDIONALIS STAGE). 
This stage is typically represented in northern Europe by 
the well-known ‘ Forest-bed Series” of Norfolk. During the 
preceding epoch the North Sea was probably not ‘less extensive 
than it is today—it even encroached upon what are now the 
maritime tracts of East Anglia. The ‘‘Forest-bed Series” of 
Norfolk points to the retreat of the North Sea from the south- 
ern area of that basin. Britain was at that time joined to the 
Continent and enjoyed a climate not less temperate than the 
present. The mammalian fauna included Elephas meridionalis, 
E. antiquus, Hippopotamus, Rhinoceros etruscus, Macherodus, etc. 
In the Alpine Lands the same stage is represented by the lignite- 
beds of Leffe, etc. (N. Italy), containing Elephas meridionalis, 
Rhinoceros leptorhinus, etc., and a flora indicative of more genial 
conditions than are now experienced in the valleys where those 
deposits occur. On the same horizon are the interglacial beds 
of Hétting in the valley of the Inn at Innsbruck—the remark- 
able flora of which similarly testifies to a warmer climate than 
the present. The so-called Upper Pliocene deposits of France, 
such as those of Mt. Perrier and St. Prest, belong most probably 
to this stage of the Glacial Period. 
III. SAXONIAN. 
To this horizon belong the accumulations of the epoch of 
maximum glaciation when the Scandinavian mer de glace invaded 
the low grounds of Saxony and the great glaciers of the Alps 
piled up the moraines of the ‘“‘outer zone.” The stage is well 
represented, in nearly all the mountain-ranges and elevated pla- 
teaux of the continent, by moraines and fluvio-glacial gravels — 
while heaps and sheets of rock-rubbish and breccia (pseudo- 
glacial accumulations) point to the action of severe climatic 
conditions at lower levels. Flood-loams were doubtless also 
abundantly distributed over the broad valleys and low-lying 
tracts of extra-glacial regions. But these cannot always be 
separated from the similar deposits of later glacial stages which 
must obviously have been deposited over the same tracts. To 
