PHYSICAL CONDITIONS— POSTGLACIAL. 507 



of plants gradually crept into Sweden ; that thereafter the land 

 again sank to a depth of 150 feet or more. 



That the British area had some connection with the Continent 

 ■ — probably with Belgium 1 and North-Eastern France — in late 

 glacial and early postglacial times may simdarly be inferred 

 from the presence in the peat of Southern England of the large 

 pines described by Mr. Godwin- Austen. 2 It is hardly possible, 

 I think, that pines could have endured the climate of England 

 during the climax of the last glacial epoch. The only flora 

 which was likely to cover the low grounds at that time would be 



1 If the "Sable Campinien" of Belgium be of marine origin and postglacial 

 age, this would indicate a submergence in early postglacial times of a wide tract 

 of country, for the beds in question extend south in Belgium as far as a line 

 drawn from Dixmunde to Maestricht by way of Ypres, Courtrai, Audenarde, 

 Alost, Malines, Louvain, and Hasselt (Dewalque, Prodrome d'une Description 

 Geologique de la Belgiquc, p. 241). But the sands of the Canqrine are, as a rule, 

 totally devoid of fossils, the only remains they have yielded being the bones and 

 teeth of mammoth, rhinoceros, dog, horse, deer, etc. According to Dewalque 

 they form the western prolongation of that great sheet of sand which stretches 

 north into Holland, and is prolonged through Northern Germany along the 

 borders of the Baltic. In other words, the " Sable Campinien" forms part and 

 parcel of the great Northern Drift. In many places, however, the deposits are 

 so loose and incoherent that they have been blown about by the winds, and thus 

 it is impossible, says M. Dewalque, always to distinguish between the undisturbed 

 and the re-arranged materials. The Belgian geologists have long been in doubt 

 as to the true geological position of the " Sable Campinien," some holding it to 

 be older, some younger, than the loss, while others have maintained that the two 

 deposits are contemporaneous. Quite recently M. P. Cogels and Baron 0. van 

 Ertborn made some borings at Menin and Courtrai which show that in those 

 places the "Campinien" overlies the " Limon hesbayen" or loss {Melanges 

 giologiqucs, Anvers, 1880). At Menin the "Campinien" was 26 feet, and at 

 Courtrai 18 feet in thickness. This, however, is hardly sufficient to prove that 

 the "Campinien" is younger than the "Limon hesbayen" throughout all 

 Belgium. The formation of loss and of drift sand was not confined to one 

 particular stage of the Pleistocene. Moreover, we have no assurance that the 

 Campinien at Menin and Courtrai is not remanii. In any event, the Campinien 

 is not a postglacial deposit, and there is not a shadow of evidence to show that it 

 is of marine origin. 



2 Dr. Buchanan White suggests that winds and sea -currents might have 

 carried to the English shores of the Channel the spores of mosses, lichens, and 

 other cryptogamic vegetation, and perhaps even the seeds of some of the higher 

 plants (see Scottish Naturalist, July 1879). If this be so, it would not be 

 necessary to suppose that in late glacial or early postglacial times England had 

 any connection with the Continent, that connection taking place at a somewhat 

 later date. 



