James Geikie — On Seasonal Migrations. 51 



with the mainland, and there is no reason why the hippopotamus 

 may not have reached Candia by this route. 



Finally, it is quite certain that even could we demonstrate that 

 Candia was joined to the mainland in late Pleistocene times, still 

 our demonstration would not prove that all the Mediterranean area 

 stood at the same high level. Unequal movements have taken place 

 contemporaneously within the Mediterranean basin, and it might 

 quite well be, that the western regions of the Mediterranean stood 

 at their present level or were even depressed below it at the very 

 time that Candia foiTued part of the mainland. It seems to me, 

 therefore, that the Candian hippopotamus is asked to prove too 

 much, and that less questionable evidence must be adduced before 

 we can be expected to believe that during our local glacier period 

 the Mediterranean existed as two land-locked seas. 



For the sake of argument, however, I shall admit that all the 

 geographical changes desiderated did actually obtain. And yet, 

 admitting this, I still hold that the climate required by the " migra- 

 tion" theory could not possibly result. We must remember that, 

 in speculating iipon the climate of so recent a period as the Pleis- 

 tocene, we tread upon infinitely surer ground than when we are 

 attempting to discover the conditions under which Silurian, Liassic, 

 or even Miocene and Pliocene deposits were accumulated. At the 

 beginning of Pleistocene times the physical features of our continent 

 were much the same as they are now, — all the great high grounds, 

 all the great drainage-systems, were even then in existence. Denu- 

 dation, no doubt, helped during the Pleistocene age to modify these 

 features ; but, when viewed on the large scale, such modificatione 

 of the land's surface may be disregarded. Then, if this be so, — if 

 the changes referred to were, comparatively speaking, so inconsider- 

 able, — we may be very sure that since the disappearance of local 

 glaciers in Britain there has been even less change in the physical 

 features of Europe. This is one important fact to remember. 



Again, we know that under the present condition of things, our 

 continent owes the equableness of its climate in great measure to 

 the influence of the Atlantic. This is another important fact that 

 we cannot lose sight of, but which seems strangely enough to have 

 escaped Mr. Dawkins' attention. Were an extensive land-surface 

 to be substituted for that great ocean, there is no reason to doubt 

 that our summers and winters would be as excessive as those in 

 similar latitudes of Asia and North America. 



A glance at the map of the world will show that in almost every 

 particular the continent of Europe differs from those of Asia and 

 North America. And as one result of this, the climates are essen- 

 tially different also. Now the question to be considered is siuiply 

 this : supposing that the British area were to become continental, and 

 our shores to extend some little distance further into the Atlantic, 

 the Mediterranean at the same time being reduced' to tAvo land- 

 locked seas, — and supposing further that all the present glacier 

 areas in Europe were to be considerably increased in size, perennial 

 snow and ice filling the upland valleys of Great Britain and Ireland, 



