456 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



up to the post-Glacial Period, separated from the Mediterranean.- 

 "Whether the Caspian -was even after that time connected witli the- 

 Mediterranean indirectly through the Bhick Sea appears somewhat, 

 problematical. 



I think we have therefore grounds for the belief, from purely 

 faunistic reasons, that the Aralo-Caspian, which was probably joined 

 to the Black Sea, Avas actually connected with the Arctic Ocean,, 

 or at least that part of it known as the "White Sea, during the- 

 earlier part of the Pleistocene Epoch. Mr. Jamieson came to a 

 similar conclusion on metereological grounds (41). As heat and dry- 

 ness were much lessened during the Glacial Period, he thought there 

 must have resulted a much smaller evaporation from such inland seas 

 as the Black Sea and the Caspian. The level would therefore have- 

 risen, until their surplus waters were discharged along the east flank 

 of the Ural Mountains into the Arctic Ocean. This view presupposes- 

 a cold climate over Central ilussia, but as we have seen that the- 

 temperatui'e must have been more equable and perhaps even milder 

 than at present, the waters of the inland sea for this reason did not 

 overflow at all. On the contrary, the large Russian inland sea was- 

 merely a remnant of a still larger sea reaching west as far as Croatia, 

 during the early Pliocene Epoch. Evaporation in fact exceeded pre- 

 cipitation, just as it does at present in the Mediterranean, with the 

 result that as soon as the junction between the southern and the 

 northern seas Avas effected, a steady current began to flow from the 

 latter to the former. 



We are told by Professor Karpinski (47, p. 182), that at the time 

 when the Aralo-Caspian Sea extended north as far as the Kama River, 

 huge glaciers descended from the Scandinavian Mountains across the 

 Russian plains similar to those now being formed in Greenland. Traces 

 of this southward extension have been met with, as far south as the 

 51st parallel of latitude. Professor Kai-pinski and the majority of 

 Continental geologists are of opinion that the boulder-clay or 

 " Geschiebe-Mergel," covering not only JSTorthern Russia, but a 

 lai'ge part of Germany, represents the ground-moraine of these 

 huge glaciers referred to. If they are contemporaneous, therefore, 

 with the above-mentioned Caspian deposits, it is perfectly clear that 

 the sea in which the latter were laid down could not have communi- 

 cated Avitli tlie White Sea, nor does it seem to me possible how a 

 temperate climate could have existed in Siberia, whilst the whole of 

 A'^orthern Europe was shrouded in a mantle of ice. It might be urged 

 that the Caspian deposits are not contemporaneous with the boulder- 



