474 Proceedings of the Roijal Irish Academy, 



Mr. Harle lias pointed out (38), the only Arctic Mammal of which 

 remains have been discovered in these mountains. It is even possible, 

 Mr. Harle thinks, that some bones which he obtained in the province 

 of Gerona, in the extreme north-east of Spain, may be referable to the 

 reindeer. The important fact, as has already been referred to by 

 Lartet (55), is that these French reindeer remains belong to the 

 Barren-ground race, whilst Gervais has shown (see Beyer, 7, p. 68) 

 that those from jS^orthern France agree with the ones from the Central 

 European deposits, and belong to the "Woodland form. Then, again, 

 Dr. Beyer informs us (7, p. 68) that, in one of the oldest Pleistocene 

 deposits of Geimany, at Risdorf, all the reindeer remains belong to 

 the Barren-ground race. All these remains of the Barren-ground 

 reindeer occur cither in caves or in early Pleistocene deposits. 

 Indeed Struckmann (81, p. 764) quite recognizes that in Southern 

 Europe (Pyrenees) the reindeer is found, as a rule, in older strata 

 than in the more northerly localities,^ 



Struckmann (81, p. 766), and also "Woldrich (93, p. 124;, believed 

 that, as far as Europe is concerned, the reindeer entered it fi'om. Asia ; 

 but Mr. Bogdanov felt that a distinct northern migi-ation, which even- 

 tually reached the Pyrenees, and among which was the reindeer, must 

 have originally issued fi-om Scandinavia (9, p. 26). The latter view 

 harmonises with my own, in so far as that I agree with him that one 

 of the races entered Europe from the direction of Scandinavia ; and 

 this is really the principal point at issue. 



It is a well-known fact that reindeer are in the habit of travelling 

 considerable distances on ice ; and it might be urged that it had 

 traversed the distance from Spitsbergen to Norway during the Glacial 

 Period, when the sea in these noi'thern latitudes was supposed to have 

 been frozen over, or covered by a huge glacier. Extensive land- 

 connexions are assumed by some geologists to have existed in the 

 Arctic regions after the Glacial Period, by means of which the fauna 

 and flora are supposed to have migrated north again, after having 

 been driven south by the cold.- 



^ He, no doubt, has the German deposits in view — not the British or Scandi- 

 navian. 



* A natural sequence of my vie-ws is that there must have been a survival of a con- 

 siderable fauna and flora throughout the Arctic regions during the Glacial Period. 

 Even Prof. IS'atborst admits (61 «, p. 200) that a small portion of the pre-Glacial 

 flora might have persisted through the Glacial Period, whilst Mr. 'Warming (90) 

 maintains that the main mass of the present flora survived in Greenland, and that 

 the remainder have been accidentally introduced by birds and winds. Few natural- 

 ists, however, are more intimately acquainted with the Arctic regions than Col. 



