536 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



crept to higher latitudes and greater elevations, and the pine, 

 followed by the oak, had occupied their places when Neolithic 

 man became a denizen of Central and North-western Europe. 

 From the appearance of his relics at the very base of the oldest 

 postglacial forest-bed in Britain, it may reasonably be inferred 

 that he was a native of this country when it still formed part of 

 the Continent. The genial epoch during which the Faeroe 

 Islands, Iceland, and Greenland, received their flora had not yet 

 passed away. Immense forests of oak still covered the low 

 grounds of Scotland and the maritime districts of Norway, and 

 dense groves of the same tree extended over vast areas in 

 Holland, Denmark, and Northern Germany. It is probable, 

 however, that the great movement of submergence which was 

 eventually to result in the isolation of the British area had 

 already made considerable progress, and the climate at the same 

 time was gradually becoming wetter and colder. 



By and by, as we know, the North Sea made its appearance, 

 and the sea reached a higher level upon our shores than it now 

 attains. Neolithic man then lived upon our coasts, and gradually 

 accumulated his kitchen -middens. The climate was wet and 

 cold, local glaciers appeared in many mountain -valleys, the 

 forests decayed, and bogs continued to encroach upon the wood- 



of other countries in Europe. This, however, is a mistake. It is true that in the 

 peat of Britain, Norway, Sweden, and Germany, we find the lower forest-layer 

 composed partly of oaks and partly of pines and other trees, whereas in the Danish 

 bogs the oak lies above the pine. But the Danish bogs are somewhat peculiar in 

 their structure. The pine was doubtless the first tree to form forests in the low 

 grounds of Northern Europe, from which it gradually retired as more genial con- 

 ditions supervened ; and if all our forest-bogs had been formed in depressions like 

 those of the Danish Skovmoser we should most probably have found the pine 

 occupying the bottom position. But, as most of our forests grew upon open 

 ground, the trees would rot and decay as they fell, and this process would con- 

 tinue until the pine had been gradually supplanted by the oak, the former, how- 

 ever, continuing to flourish in suitable localities. "When at last a wet period 

 supervened and the forests decayed and were buried in peat, the pine and the oak 

 would be found upon one and the same horizon, each occupying the position 

 which had been most suited to its requirements. The Danish bogs seem to have 

 existed as marshes from the close of the Glacial Period, so that they contain an 

 uninterrupted record of the changes ; while most of our bogs, on the other hand, 

 did not come into existence until after the oak had spread abundantly into the 

 most northerly regions. 





