1871.] DAWKINS — GTJLO LTTSCUS IN BRITAIN. 409 



not increased and multiplied to such a degree as to upset the oeconomy 

 of nature, by driving the wild animals away from their feeding- 

 grounds, and robbing the carnivores of a large portion of their food. 

 To this cause I should assign the larger size of nearly all the pleis- 

 tocene mammalia, as compared with those which are undoubtedly 

 their lineal descendants, such as the Cave-lion, the Cave-hyaena, 

 and the Stag. 



The Glutton at the present day inhabits the inclement northern 

 regions of the Old World, to the point where the forests gradually 

 die down into the lonely wastes of the " Tundras," and is to be 

 found in Norway, Sweden, Lapland and as far east as Kamtschatka. 

 In the New \Yorld it ranges, under the name of Wolverine, north- 

 wards from the latitude of Canada. It was seen by Eoss in the 70° 

 parallel in the winter ; and its bones have been met with in Melville 

 Island. Its southern limit in Asia is the latitude 50°, where it 

 occurs in the Altai. In Europe its southern limit is not clearly de- 

 fined; but it has steadily retreated northwards as the vast forests of 

 Germany and Poland gradually fell under the axe of the woodman. 

 According to Eichwald, it once lived in the Lithuanian region along 

 with the Bison, which still lingers there under the protection of an 

 Imperial ukase ; and Zimmermann adduces proof of its having been 

 killed as far south as Helmstadt, in Brunswick*. In the pleistocene 

 caves of Germany it is found abundantly, with the Beindeer, Cave-Kon, 

 and Hysena, at least as far south as Gailenreuth, in Bavaria, where 

 it was first discovered by Dr. Goldfuss. It is figiired and described 

 from the caves of Belgium by Dr. Buckland's great rival, Dr. Schmer- 

 ling. W^e might therefore naturally expect to find the animal 

 ranging over our island at a time when it formed part of the main- 

 land of Europe, and offered free access to the same animals (the 

 Eeindeer, the Lemming, and the Horse) as those which still furnish 

 food to the living Glutton in Siberia. The presence in Great Britain 

 of a creature adapted for enduring the severity of an Arctic winter, 

 and not now found in any hot regions, along with the Eein-deer, 

 Lemming, and Musk-Sheep, implies that the pleistocene winters were 

 of an Arctic severity — just as the Hippopotamus, found under precisely 

 the same conditions, and associated with the same group of animals, 

 points to a hot summer like that which obtains on the Lower Volga. 

 The intimate association in one spot of animals now confined re- 

 spectively to the hottest and coldest regions seems to me to admit 

 of no other explanation. 



I have added to this essay a list (see p. 410) of the pleistocene 

 animals found in the various caves hitherto explored in the valley 

 of the Elwy, as supplementing the Table of the Distribution of 

 the British mammals published in the Quarterly Journal, May 

 1869. 



* The avithorities consulted for the range of the Ghitton are Blasius (Fauna 

 derWirbelthiereDeutsclilands), Zimmermann (Specimen ZoologieeGeographicie), 

 and Sir John Eichardson (Fauna Boreali-Americana). 



