1872.] DAWKINS CLASSIFICATION OF PLEISTOCENE STRATA. 445 



B. The middle stage. 



Palaeolithic man. Rhinoceros megarhinus, still 



Machcerochis latidens. living. 



Stag, abundant. S. tichorhinus, present. 



Northern forms of life present, but not in force. 



C. The early stage. 



The following animals are peculiar to this stage : — 



Trogontherium Cuvieri. C. Sedgwickii. 



Cervus verticornis. C. carnutorimi. 



The following make their appearance : — The Beaver, Musk-shrew, Cave-bear, 

 Roe, Stag, Irish EOs:, Urus and Eison, Wild Boar, Horse (?), Mammoth, Wolf, 

 and Fox. 



The Pliocene Urstis arvernensis, Cervus Polignacus, Ehinoceros etruscus, 

 and Elephas meridionalis still living. 



The Pliocene. 

 Mastodon arvernensis. Hipparion gracile. 



M. Borsoni. No living species of Cervidae. 



The three subdivisions of the Pleistocene do not apply to the re- 

 gion south of the Alps and Pyrenees, because the northern group of 

 animals did not pass into Spain and Italy. In these two latter 

 countries we find that assemblage of animals living throughout the 

 Pleistocene age, which in France and Britain lived only in the 

 early stage. 



Discussion. 



Mr. Pkestwich was hardly prepared to accept the proposed divi- 

 sion of the Pleistocene mammalia into three groups — at all events 

 so far as Britain was concerned. Neither could he draw that dis- 

 tinction between the beds at Erith and Grays and those higher up 

 the Thames, which found favour with the author. The barrier 

 oflPered by the river itself might to some extent account for the 

 absence of Reindeer; and though there was a difiference in the 

 fauna in the two cases, it seemed hardly enough to mark any great 

 distinction in time. As for the Hippopotamus, which occurred over 

 the whole of Northern Europe, associated with the Musk-ox and 

 large boulders, he could not see how the conclusion was to be 

 escaped of its having been able to withstand greater cold than its 

 present representative. Though the winters might have been colder, 

 there was evidence in favour of the summers having been warmer ; 

 and the flora seems to have been much like that of the present day. 

 The probable migrations of the different animal groups had already 

 been pointed out by M. Lartet, though Mr. Dawkins had carried his 

 investigation of the subject further. Mr. Prestwich called attention 

 to the fact of the Mammoth having been found in Italy. 



Mr. Charleswoeth regretted that the author had not included 

 within his province any of the marine Crag- deposits, some of which 

 had been regarded as Pleistocene. In these beds the fish had been 

 regarded by M. Agassiz as tropical in character, while M. Deshayes 

 considered the moUuscan remains arctic. A similar discrepancy 

 had been observed in other deposits of the same series ; and he con- 



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