468 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 



It is evident that during the deposition of the rorest-bed, the 

 south of England was joined to France. But the two countries must 

 have been united for a considerable time previously, and this is quite 

 in accordance with the opinion expressed by geologists. Mr. Jnkea- 

 Brown (46, p. 347) believes that in early Pliocene times there was an 

 Eastern Sea or German Ocean which spread over a portion of Southern 

 England, but that there is no proof of the existence of an English 

 Channel. Again (p. 350), he remarks: " It is tolerably certain that 

 in Miocene time the whole of England and of North-eastern France, 

 with the intervening channel area, was land." In later Pliocene times, 

 the channel was still closed, according to a map (p. 358) which he 

 gives us of the geography of that period. 



Quite recently, Mr. Dollfus, of Paris, who has made this subject 

 his special study, communicated a note to the British Association 

 (25, p. 690) agreeing in all essentials with the views expressed by 

 Mr. Jukes-Brown. England, he says, was always in direct continental 

 communication with France during Pliocene time; tlie English Channel 

 was not open at all. 



As regards the Scandinavian peninsula, the total absence of 

 Mammalian remains in Pleistocene deposits indicates that this country 

 was not connected with tlie Continent during that period. 



The presence, on the other hand, of Mammalian remains in more 

 recent deposits, chiefly in Southern Sweden, implies that toward the 

 end of the Glacial Period, a land passage must have existed between 

 North-western Gennany and Sweden across Denmark. In referring 

 to the absence of fossil elephants and other laige Mammals from the 

 Scandinavian Pleistocene strata, Prof. Polilig (69, p. 314) expresses 

 the belief that Scandinavia must either have been hardly free from 

 ice during the whole of the Glacial Period, or, if free from ice during 

 Interglacial times, it could then only have had an imperfect connexion 

 with the Continent. That of these alternatives the former was not 

 the case Avill be proved in the next chapter, and if, as I believe, the 

 bulk of the fauna and flora sui-vived the Glacial Period in the country 

 itself from pre-Glacial times, there is no necessity for supposing that 

 any connexion existed between tlie Continent and Scandinavia in 

 Interglacial times. 



The Arctic Migration. 



The animals belonging to the Siberian migration did not reach 

 Ireland, as I have shown in the lust chapter, but the effects of a 

 migration which undoubtedly did, and which preceded from the north — 



I 



