470 Reviews — Scharfs Origin of the European Fauna. 



the ' Loess ' formation in which the Siberian animals have been 

 discovered in Northern Germany. I believe in the latter hypothesis. 

 If this view sliould be correct, the whole of the British Pliocene 

 strata, or a portion of them, must be of the same age as the Lower 

 Continental Boulder-clay. The marine fauna which made its way 

 west from the Arctic Ocean across the North Kussian plains, and 

 reappeared again on the Baltic coasts just before the deposition of 

 the Boulder-clay, must have entered the German Ocean and left its 

 traces behind in the strata which formed on the east coast of 

 England. And this is precisely what occurred. 'In the oldest 

 member of the Pliocene system,' remarks Professor J. Geikie 

 ' in the Coralline Crag, the general facies of the fauna clearly 

 indicates a warm, temperate climate, for all the living species 

 are, southern forms. In the Eed Crag, however, northern forms 

 begin to appear, and increase in numbers as we pass upwards 

 to the higher members, while at the same time the extinct and 

 southern forms gradually die out.' If the view that the Forest- 

 bed represents an Interglacial deposit is correct, as indeed has 

 already been suggested by Professor Geikie, the whole of the newer 

 British Pliocene is synchronous with the Lower Continental Boulder- 

 clay." (p. 463.) 



On the Condition of the Old Land-surface in Southern Bussia 

 during the Siberian Migration to the West. — " We may assume, 

 therefore, that this tract of land, over which the Siberian fauna 

 wandered, consisted of a vast prairie. On their arrival in 

 the more central parts of Europe, the Siberian mammals spread 

 into Austria, Hungary, and Northern Italy, throughout the greater 

 part of Germany and France, and into England. They scarcely 

 touched any part of Southern Europe, and their progress in 

 France was apparently arrested by the Garonne, as no typical 

 Siberian forms are found fossil south of that river, in the Pyrenees, 

 or in Spain. Of course, more recently the Siberian survivors in 

 Europe have spread not only into Southern Italy and Spain, but 

 also throughout Great Britain and Scandinavia. Bat none of then\ 

 entered Ireland, and I have given this as one of my reasons for 

 the belief that this country became separated from England about 

 the time when the Forest-bed was laid down, and has never since 

 been joined to it. 



"It is evident that during the deposition of the Forest-bed, the 

 South of England was joined to France. But the two countries 

 must have been united for a considerable time previously, and this 

 is quite in accordance with the opinion expressed by geologists." 



The Scandinavian Peninsula. — "As regards the Scandinavian Pen- 

 insula, the total absence of mammalian remains in Pleistocene deposits 

 indicates that this country was not connected with the Continent 

 during that period. The presence, on the other hand, of mammalian 

 remains in more recent deposits, chiefly in Southern Sweden, 

 implies that towards the end of the Glacial period, a land-passage 

 must have existed between North-Western Germany and Sweden 

 across Denmark. In referring to the absence of fossil elephants 



