406 G. W. Bulman — Glacial Geology. 



packed with stones, most of which are scratched, underneath the 

 undoubted marine drift of the Welsh coast, has been previously noted." 

 The view that these sands and gravels are interglacial rests on 

 the assumption, that the beds thus lying above the Boulder-clay in 

 one place are of the same age as those lying beneath it in another. 



The mammalian and other remains found in the intercalated beds 

 are taken by Professor Geikie as evidence of the mild climate he 

 supposes to have prevailed. Yet similar remains are noted as 

 occurring in the Till itself: 



"In the mass of the Till itself fossils sometimes, but very rarely, 

 occur. Tusks of the Mammoth, Eeindeer antlers, and fragments of 

 wood have from time to time been discovered in this position." ^ 



And there are so many ways in which such remains as are found 

 in the intercalated beds might come to be imbedded in them that a 

 mild interglacial climate should not be assumed without very strong 

 evidence. 



It seems to be generally inferred, that the glacial conditions drove 

 such Mammalia, and other temperate forms, out of the country, and 

 that a mild interval, and a union of England with the continent, 

 was required to allow of their return. 



But is it not possible they may have lingered in the southern 

 ungiaciated districts, migrating northwards during the summer, 

 and occasionally leaving their remains where glacial deposits were 

 being laid down? And a succession of warm summers might 

 induce them to travel to higher latitudes than usual. And it is 

 worthy of note that these mammalian remains are found in the 

 loioer districts, where there would be less ice and milder conditions, 

 and where the ice was likely to melt most completely during the 

 summer. Prof. Geikie accounts for their absence on the higher 

 grounds by the greater intensity of the glaciation which he thinks 

 removed them ; but the alternative explanation that they never 

 existed there is worthy of consideration. And a hint of how 

 mammalian remains may come to be imbedded in deposits far 

 beyond the usual habitat of the species is afforded by Dr. Meyer, 

 in his account of his recent exploration of the glaciers of Kilimanjaro 

 in Eastern Equatorial Africa : 



" We were about half way through this terrific bit of work," he 

 writes, " when we came upon what was perhaps as wonderful a 

 discovery as any we made in Kilimanjaro. It almost savours of 

 the fabulous, but here in this stern frost-bound region, at the very 

 summit of a mountain 20,000 feet high, we lighted on the dead 

 body of an Antelope — one of the small species we had noticed on 

 the pasture-lands below. How the animal came there it is impossible 

 to say. In all probability it had made its way upward by the same 

 path as ourselves, at a time when the ice was covered by its winter 

 coating of snow, and overtaken in these lofty solitudes by the 

 fury of a mountain-storm, had paid with its life the penalty of its 

 adventurous curiosity." ^ 



1 Great Ice Age, p. 164. 



2 Across East African Glaciers, by Dr. Hans Meyer, pp. 183-4. 



