568 APPENDIX. 



NOTE C. 



PLATE E. — Europe in Early Postglacial Times 

 (First Age of Forests). 



This map shows the probable extent of land that obtained in early 

 Postglacial times when the climate was mild and genial, and the Fseroe 

 Islands and Iceland received their floras from the European mainland. 

 Of course the line given for the land extending from the Fasrbe Islands to 

 Iceland is conjectural. The soundings upon the charts are few in number 

 and wide apart, and, doubtless, the coast would be much more irregular 

 than is here indicated. For the coast of the mainland from Spain to St. 

 Kilda I have followed the line of 100 fathoms, and from St. Kilda north- 

 wards that of 500 fathoms, which is also that of the Icelandic area. I 

 have endeavoured to show that before this great extension of land took 

 place there had been a considerable increase in the volume of warm water 

 flowing from the South into the Northern Ocean, accompanied by the 

 immigration of many southern forms of life into the Norwegian Seas. An 

 elevation of the land and consequent retreat of the sea afterwards super- 

 vened, as may be inferred from the fact that the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, 

 and even Greenland, have received their floras from Europe ; and the 

 immigration of those floras necessitates the existence of a continuous, or 

 nearly continuous, land-connection. 



The larger depressions of the Gulf of Bothnia, the Baltic, the deep 

 trough between Denmark and Norway, the long hollow in the bed of the 

 Irish Sea, and some of the deep excavations in the sea-bottom between 

 the Hebrides and the Scottish mainland, are represented as freshwater 

 lakes. The rivers shown upon the now submerged areas follow the lines 

 of deeper soundings. 



