428 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Juue 5, 



rature, rather than to an insurmountable mountain-range, since they 

 are absent from Provence and Nice, on the French side of the Alpine 

 barrier. The Pouched Marmot {Spermopliilus citillus) of the Don 

 and Volga, found its way as far west as Somersetshire ; and the 

 Hamster of Siberia extended as far west as Provence. The Alpine 

 Hare, now found only in the colder climates of Northern Europe 

 (with the solitary exception of Ireland), occupied the vaUey of the 

 Ehine, at least as far down as Schussenried, in Suabia ; and the 

 Alpine Marmot lived then as now on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean, near Mentone, The Ibex and Chamois ranged throughout 

 Germany, as far north as Belgium, and occupied the south of France ; 

 and the former ranged as far to the south as Mentone and Gibraltar. 

 The two carnivores now characteristic of the arctic regions, the 

 Glutton and the Arctic Fox, have been discovered, the one as far to 

 the south-west as Eastern France*, and the other as far as Schus- 

 senried ; and at one time they doubtless occupied the whole of Ger- 

 many and Northern Russia. The latter has not been found either 

 in Britain or France. If the present habits of these animals be any 

 index to their mode of life in the Pleistocene age, their presence in 

 France, Germany, and Britain implies that the climate was severe, 

 that it must have been analogous to that which they now enjoy on 

 the tops of lofty mountains, or in the severe climate of the northern 

 steppes in Asia and the high northern latitudes of America. But 

 this conclusion is diametrically opposed by the evidence afforded by 

 -the Lion, Hippopotamus, and Spotted Hysena. On the one hand, 

 we meet with a group of animals throughout Italy and Spain and 

 passing as far north as the latitude of Yorkshire, which are now 

 peculiar to hot climates ; on the other hand, we have a group of 

 ■ animals peculiar to cold climates, occupying in fuU. force the whole 

 of the region north of the Alps and Pyrenees. And the remains 

 of these two groups of animals are so associated together in the 

 caves and river- deposits of this region, that it is impossible to deny 

 the fact that it was the common feeding-ground of both. And al- 

 though it may be objected that the Spotted Hysena, Lion, and 

 Felis caffer may have been endowed with the same elasticity of con- 

 stitution as the living Tiger, which is equally fitted to endure the 

 severity of a Siberian winter on the shores of the Sea of Aral, and 

 the intense tropical heat of Bengal, the same objection cannot be 

 made to the Hippopotamus, because there is no case on record of any 

 living species of herbivore being fitted at once for a cold and a hot 

 climate. 



The difficulty, however, offered by this conflict of testimony vanishes 

 away, if we examine the conditions under which animals migrate 

 from one area to another, according to the season. Sir John Franklin 

 writes that the migrations of the animals in North America afford 

 a means of foretelling the severity of the season. If the Eeindeer 

 retreat far south, then a severe winter is to be apprehended ; if, on 

 -the contrary, they remain very nearly in their usual winter haunts, 

 the season invariably is a mild one. The Reindeer of Northern 

 *: Hamy, Paleontologie Humaine, p. 152. 



