xxxmii PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



Climatal Change on the Continent. 



The presence of the reindeer in the Hercynian forest in the days of Caesar shows that 

 the climate of North Germany was more severe than at the present time, just as the 

 reindeer of Caithness tell the same story of the climate of Britain in the twelfth century. 

 This conclusion is considerably strengthened by the fact, brought forward by Gibbon, 

 that in the days of Tacitus the Germans were in the habit of crossing over the Rhine and 

 the Danube 1 with their waggons on a solid bridge of ice to invade the Roman provinces. 

 Such a severity of winter cold as is implied by this is at the present time exceptional. 

 This climatal change can scarcely be considered as the result of the cutting down of 

 forests or of the drainage of morasses : it is rather to be viewed as the last phase of a 

 great secular change, which began far out of the reach of history, and affected the 

 northern hemisphere before man had begun to make any impression on forest or morass. 

 Erom the glacial period down to the present time the temperature of north-western 

 Europe has gradually been rising. 



Conclusion. 



In this and the preceding chapters the historic mammalia of Europe have been briefly 

 enumerated. As we pass backwards in time we see that the reindeer ranged further 

 south than it does at the present time. We shall see that it ranged still further south in 

 the prehistoric age, and ultimately in the Pleistocene, it reached the Alps and Pyrenees. 

 It is surprising that the lion, the panther, and the urus, are the only three mammals which 

 have been exterminated in Europe. The principal interest centres in the domestic animals. 

 The fact that the urus breed was introduced into Britain by the English is most 

 important for the student of history. The distribution of the fallow deer was due to the 

 direct influence of the Roman power, while the northward distribution of the cat stands in 

 direct relation to the intercourse which the people of France, Germany, and Britain had 

 with the south and east of Europe. 



1 See ' Decline and Fall,' i, chapter ix. 



