JU8 AN ANCIENT HAUNT OF THE CERVUS MEGACEROS ; 



Islands Europe presented a condition similar to that of Greenland at 

 the present time ; and during the prevalence of this period of extreme 

 cold the glacial drift, boulder clay, and stratified sands and gravels, 

 were deposited over the whole of Northern Europe, and over North 

 America, as far soiith as the 39th parallel, during prolonged sub- 

 mergence itnder an arctic sea. Then followed the changes of that 

 subsequent period, dui'ing which the physical geography acquired its 

 latest development, and the present continents gradually assumed 

 the characteristics fitting them for existing conditions of life. 



Of nearly a hundred species of mammals recognized in the post- 

 glacial deposits of Europe, fifty-seven still occupy the same localities ; 

 ■whilst others, such as the reindeer and the musk-sheep have with- 

 drawn to northerly areas. A continuou.s chain of life, however, is 

 indicated by the prolongation of about twelve pliocene s^jecies into 

 the post-glacial fauna of Great Britain. But, along with those, 

 numerous new species appear ; and changes of an altogether novel 

 character are inaugurated by the presence among them of man. 



The revolution wrought in physical geography, in climate, and in 

 all the accompanying conditions of life, during the pleistocene age are 

 most clearly illustrated by the character and distribution of the 

 mammalia, of which fifty-three species are represented in the remains 

 found in the gravels and cave deposits. The Elephas primigenius, or 

 mammoth, common both to Europe and America, has become 

 extinct in the old world, subsequent to the advent of man. It is still 

 an open question whether in the new world man coexisted with the 

 mastodon ; but in the eastern hemisphere at least, more than one 

 species of j^roboscidian abounded, and in vast herds overspread the 

 northern plains of Europe and Asia. Along with those there were 

 three or four species of rhinoceros, a large hippopotamus, and other 

 forms of animal life pointing to a condition of things widely differ- 

 ing from anything known within the historic period. The herbivora 

 included both deer -and oxen, some of which still survive in more 

 limited northern areas ; and those, along with the mammoth, woolly 

 rhinoceros, Irish elk, and reindeer, were preyed upon by numerous 

 carnivora, including the extinct cave lion and great cave bear, the 

 ursusferox, or grizzly bear, — now the strongest and most ferocious of 

 all the carnivora of the American continent, — and the cave hyaena, 

 ivhich has still its living representatives in South Africa. 



