Yol. 57.] CLiaiAIE OF THE PLEISTOCENE EPOCH. 475 



Dr. Ekholm's figures take no account, as lie himself suggests, of 

 the fact, that a part of the excess of heat received from the sun at 

 the Pole would have been expended in the melting of snow and ice, 

 and the evaporation of water. The cloudiness so produced, as at 

 present in northern latitudes, must have tended to lower the 

 temperature. The influence of the winds, moreover, would have dis- 

 persed any excess of heat which may have there arisen. So long as 

 an ice-sheet continued in Labrador, the winds would probably have 

 blown prevalenth' from that country towards the Pole, and possibly 

 thence, on the view taken by me (figs. 18 & 20, pp. 452 & 456), in 

 the direction of Europe, and not from the Pole to Labrador. 



Evidence of a change of climate during the post-Glacial Period, 

 similar to those mentioned by Dr. Ekholm, has been described by 

 Mr. Clement Reid, F.E.S./ who in 1896 found, in a lacustrine 

 deposit at Hoxne (Suffolk), a bed containing leaves of Arctic plants^ 

 including three species of dwarf willow {Salix myrsinites, S. herbacea, 

 and S. polaris) and the Arctic birch (Betida nana). In a bed con- 

 formable to, and immediately underljing this, the character of the 

 flora suddenly changes, no specimens being found in it except those 

 of plants and trees now growing in the East of England. It seems 

 to me improbable that these closely related strata can represent any 

 such extended period as those referred to by Dr. Ekholm, and if 

 so, the climatic changes that they indicate may have been due to 

 meteorological rather than to astronomical causes. 



Dr. Ekholm gives many interesting particulars to shew that, during 

 a period extending from the third to the end of the eighteenth century^ 

 the winters were occasionally more severe than they are now, in 

 Scandinavia and North-western Europe on the one hand, and in 

 Italy, the Adriatic, the Bosphorus, and Asia Minor on the other ; 

 but in no single case do the dates given for the abnormal seasons of 

 the different regions coincide. He states, moreover, that Greenland 

 and Iceland are believed to have formerly enjoyed a somewhat milder 

 climate than that of the present day (o^j. cit. p. 49). Extreme winter- 

 temperatures have not been unknown in the British Isles during 

 recent years : a minimum of —16° Fahr, was recorded at Kelso in 

 December 1879," and winter maxima of 60° Fahr. and upwards 

 are not uncommon. At present, conditions of excessive cold do not 

 last long in these islands, as the prevalent position of the winter- 

 anticyclones is not favourable to such a state of things. The anti- 

 cyclonic systems shift, however, not only from day to day, and from 

 season to season, but possibly also from age to age.^ ^'liy this is 

 so we have yet to learn, but it is not difficult to understand that a 

 comparatively slight alteration in the prevalent alignment of the 

 winter-isobars and in the direction of the winds so resulting, might 



1 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1896 (Liverpool) p. 400. 



^ Quart. Journ. Eoy. Met. Soc. vol. xxvii (1901) p. 62. • 



^ Among other facts cited by Dr. Ekholm are eome to show that 300 years- 

 ago easterly and south-easterly winds were prevalent in Denmark, rather than 

 those from the vrest and south-west as r.t present, op. cit. p. 52. 



Q. J. a. S. No. 227. 2 k 



