106 Br. Hicks — Fauna of Ffynnon Beiino Cave, etc. 



south. We may, therefore, legitimately assume that ancestors of the 

 Pleistocene animals of Northern origin (probably also Man) must 

 Lave been in existence somewhere during the time the Pliocene 

 deposits were accumulating in the south-east, for it is generally 

 admitted that the cold crept slowly over this country from the north, 

 and that there was much land with high mountain ranges in the 

 north and north-west during Pliocene times. It is important to 

 remember also that wherever Eeindeer remains have been found, 

 there also we find traces of Man. 



Although Man probably reached this country from the east, it 

 seems to me equally clear that he must also have arrived here with 

 the Eeindeer from some northern source during the advance of glacial 

 conditions. A fauna therefore which would be Interglacial in the 

 north would be Pre- Glacial for some of the areas further south. The 

 Forest Bed Fauna is specially interesting in showing the southward 

 extension of some northern raauimaliasuch as the Glutton, Mammoth, 

 and (according to Prof. Boyd Dawkins), the Musk Sheep, before 

 glacial conditions had actually affected that area, and the absence 

 from it of the Eeindeer and Woolly Ehinoceros is only what might 

 be expected, as most of the herbivorous animals would naturally 

 keep near to the edge of the advancing ice and in the mountain valleys, 

 until driven to the southern areas by the increased cold towards the 

 climax of the Ice age. The apparent absence of the Lion is easily 

 accounted for, since its remains, like those of the Hyasna, are chiefly 

 found in caverns which were their dens, and where they died.^ It 

 must not be forgotten also that the Forest Bed contains the fauna 

 of an eastern, not of a western, area, as the river on the banks of 

 which the animals roamed flowed from the south-east. Moreover, the 

 conditions in the north and north-west were such during Pliocene 

 time as would not tempt the more southern forms to migrate there. 

 If Pliocene deposits occurred in the north and north-west, it is 

 strange that no traces of them are now anywhere to be seen, or that 

 some of the remains should not be found re-deposited in the Drift. 

 The Pliocene fauna throughout shows that the climate was during 

 that period becoming gradually colder, and the Forest Bed fauna is 

 a further indication of an important stage in the onward advance of 

 the ice. Some lists recently' published by Mr. Jukes-Browne^ demon- 

 strate this very forcibly. They show that of the Mammalia of the 

 Pliocene, seventeen only are found in the Forest Bed, and of these 

 no less than seven, namely. Hippopotamus major, Ehinoceros mega- 

 rhinus, Elephas antiquiis, Cervns elapJius, Eqiius cabalhts, Machairodus 

 latidens, and Castor europcBus, pass up into the Pleistocene. Of those 

 which appeared for the first time in the Forest Bed, twenty-one 

 ranged to newer beds, seven species of Deer and Caprovis Savinii 

 being the only forms not known as yet in the Pleistocene. All the 

 Mollusca of the Forest Bed pass up into the newer beds. If the 



^ Mr. "W. Davies mentions (Catalogue of Sir Antonio Brady's Collection, p. xxxiii) 

 that "as we might expect from the known habits of the Felidce, their remains are 

 comparatively rare in all aqueous deposits, being more generally found in cares and 

 rock fissures." 2 Historical Geology, pp. 499 and 500. 



