BRANDT BISTBIBUTION OF REINDEER, BISON, AND AUROCHS. 15 



Rcnbcrg, besides a great diversity of well-preserved Foraminifera. 

 It must be remarked that most of the Eocene species of Kicw are 

 not mentioned in the h'st of Ukranian Eocene species published in 

 183G by M. Dubois. 



[Count M.] 



On the Geographical and Geological Distribution of the Rein- 

 deer, the BrsoN, and the Aurochs. By J. Fr. de Brandt. 



[Proceed. Imp. Geol. Inst. Vienna, June 4, 1807.] 



In a paper communicated to the Imp. Academy of St. Petersburg, 

 M. Brandt gives the results of his investigations on the geographi- 

 cal range of the Reindeer, the Bison {Bos bison and B. bonasus), 

 and the Aurochs (Bos primuienms or Taurus si/lvestris), and on the 

 distribution of the fossil remains of these animals. There are no 

 well-defined limits between M. Lartet's palaeontologico-chronologi- 

 cal periods, severally characterized by the existence of Ursvs speloius, 

 the Mammoth, the Reindeer, and the Aurochs. M. Garrigou's 

 three periods are more natural, but do not quite represent the real 

 state of things. According to M. Brandt's views, the Lower, Middle, 

 and perhaps the Up])er Tertiary faunas of Central Europe, which 

 are indicative of a warmer climate, Avere followed by an immigra- 

 tion from Northern Asia, progressing from the north-east to the 

 south-west. At this epoch (and perhaps already during the Ter- 

 tiary period) Xorthern Asia was occupied by the same mammalian 

 fauna as at present, with the addition of some few species since 

 extinct (Mammoth, Shaggy Rhinoceros, Aurochs, Bison, Musk-Ox, 

 Gazelle, Argali, Musk-Deer, Capricorn, Reindeer, Stag, Roe, Boar, 

 and perhaps already Tiger and Hyaena) ; and this fauna may have 

 persisted there through an indefinite, and probably a veiy long 

 period. The contemporaneity of man with this fauna is not yet proven ; 

 but it is, to some extent, jn'obable. The next period commences 

 Avith the migration from North- eastern Asia into Central, Western, 

 and Southern Europe, cansed and favoured by a general depres- 

 sion of temperature, and continues down to the extinction of the 

 Mammoth. The whole of the fauna of this period could not exist 

 so completely in any European region as in its native country ; 

 however, the existence of man during this period is no longer 

 doubtful. A third period, encroaching on historical times, ranges 

 from the extinction of the Mammoth and of the Woolly Rhinoceros 

 down to the extinction of the Reindeer in Central Europe (in 

 Scotland during the 12th century). The fourth period is charac- 

 terized by the extinction of the Aurochs and of the Cervus mega- 

 cn-os in Central Europe, and by the notable diminution of the 

 Bison, the Elk, the Beaver, the Bear, the Latix, &c., and ends 

 about the middle of the 16th century. During the fifth or present 



