POSTGLACIAL, &c, DEPOSITS OF CONTINENT. 493 



are Limncea limosa, Pisidium, probably pukhellum, and Cythe- 

 ridea torosa. At Kolbermoor, in the south-east of Bavaria, 

 Nathorst found Betula nana, B. alba, Myrtillus idiginosa, and 

 Oxycoccus palustris, at a depth of eight feet from the surface in a 

 peat-bog, the dwarf-birch being so very abundant that its remains 

 form a regular layer or bed. Higher up in the peat (composed 

 principally of Sphagnum, Briophorum, etc.) appeared leaves of 

 Andromeda polifolia (moorwort), a small shrub common in the 

 northern countries of our continent. At the time the dwarf 

 birch was growing so plentifully on the Bavarian bogs, the con- 

 ditions must have been such as one now meets with on the 

 peat-bogs of northern Sweden and Norway. It is interesting to 

 find, Nathorst remarks, that species which formerly grew abun- 

 dantly on the surface of the peat have now retreated to the 

 tops of some of the highest mountains in Bavaria. Besides the 

 plants named by Nathorst as occurring in the Bavarian peat, 

 Prof. Zittel mentions also Salix herhacea and Dryas octopetala. 1 



Mention has already been made of Nathorst's discovery of an 

 arctic-alpine flora in Switzerland, 2 and I shall now refer to only 

 another example of the occurrence in peat of plants tbat indi- 

 cate colder conditions than the present, an example which is 

 sufficiently suggestive. In the environs of Troyes (Champagne) 

 the small affluents of the Seine flow in valleys, the bottoms of 

 which are here and there clothed with turbaries which have 

 been examined and described by M. Fliehe. 3 They have yielded 

 an abundant suite of animal and vegetable remains, together 

 with human relics. The latter are plentiful and consist of 

 charcoal, potsherds, broken and worked bones, flint implements, 

 polished and well chipped, and others showing much ruder 

 workmanship, fragments of sandstone, and various objects in 

 bronze and iron. The stone implements were found in the lower 

 and deeper part of the turbaries, while the objects of metal 

 occurred towards the upper surface. The fauna included badger, 



1 "Ueber Gletscher-Erscheinungen in der bayerischen Hoehebene," Sitz. der 

 Jc.-bay. Akad. der Wiss. zu Miinchen, 1874. 2 See ante, p. 55. 



3 Comptes Rendus des I'Acad. des Sciences, t lxxxii. p. 979. 



