﻿Trof. Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 515 



In the first portion of my journey across Sweden, and along 

 Finland, I described the ice-worn aspect which these countries 

 present, which 1, in part, justly attributed to the action of coast-ice 

 on a rising area. I then made reference to the indications that we 

 have, both here and farther south, of the higher lands and valleys 

 being covered with glacier-ice. In some places new ones were 

 freshly formed, whilst in other places pre-existing ones were aug- 

 mented, so that, as Prof. Eamsay tells us, we had, for example, in 

 the Alps glaciers perhaps 3500 feet in thickness. All this implied 

 an intensification of modern agencies. Farther on, upon the section 

 of my journey across the Siberian steppes, I intimated that indica- 

 tions of an ice-cap, or of conditions so severe as they appear to have 

 been in Europe, are at present wanting, and, therefore, until we 

 have really found them, their existence rests on debatable evidence. 

 Adopting the above views, the tracks of Palaeolithic man, and of 

 the animals which were contemporary with him, which are being 

 brought to light in Siberia, may be taken as congruent phenomena, 

 and we may suppose that they retreated from a climate, which in 

 Western Europe was by its severity driving them towards the south, 

 and escaped to one more suited to their conditions. That they re- 

 treated directly towards the north as the cold retreated, at present 

 hardly appears to have been the case, because remains of a Paleo- 

 lithic type do not apj^ear to have been collected from those countries, 

 like Denmark and Scandinavia, where they would naturally be ex- 

 pected to occur. 



With this speculation upon the cause of migration, which migra- 

 tion was in itself more or less of a speculation, I will stop, and 

 return to my track upon the road to Irkutsk from which I have so 

 far wandered. The country beyond the Eiver Kan is undulating, 

 and is thickly covered with both pine and birch. As the road some- 

 times led us along the tops of ridges, we occasionally obtained exten- 

 sive views. In the afternoon we crossed a morass upon a road which 

 was kept in its place by a row of piles driven in about three feet 

 apart upon either side. Every morning we stopped at the first 

 station we reached after daybreak to warm ourselves and drink tea. 

 At these places we had excellent opportunities for observing a red 

 species of cock-roach with which the walls of the station-house 

 were thickly covered. On the following night, 1st of November, it 

 snowed heavily, and by the morning the ground was so thickly 

 covered that the rapidity of our progress was greatly impeded. The 

 surrounding hills were now higher. Owing to a thaw during the 

 day and a frost at night, the sides of many of the hills which we 

 had to cross became so slippery that it was often doubtful whether 

 we should reach their summits, and much of the night was spent 

 walking alongside our struggling horses. One horse we had to 

 leave for dead. On the 4th it rained and blew heavily, and, in spite 

 of all our endeavours, the rain forced an entrance to our tarantass. 

 On the evening of the same day, about 5 p.m., we reached the shores 

 of the rapidly flowing Angara, on the opposite side of which we 

 could see the glimmering lights of the houses in Irkutsk. In less 



