Interglacial Periods. og 
those places, says :—“The coexistence of the species found 
there, remarks M. Saporta, proves very clearly that, notwith- 
standing the variations due to latitude, Hurope, from the Medi- 
terranean to its central districts, offered fewer contrasts, and 
was more uniform than itis now. A more equable climate, 
damp and clement, allowed the Acer pseudo-platanus and the 
fig to live associated together near Paris, as it allowed the 
reindeer and hyzna. The Acer grows with difficulty now 
where the Ficus grows wild, while the latter has to be pro- 
tected in winter in the latitude of Paris.’’* 
Hqually conclusive is the testimony borne by the Mollusca 
of the tufas. In the tufas and marls of Moret, in the vailey 
of the Seine, thirty-five species were discovered. The majority 
of these must have lived in damp and shady places, in the 
recesses of moist woods, and on the leaves of marsh-plants. 
The shells, M. Tournouér concludes, bespeak a condition of 
climate more uniform, damp, and equable than now prevails 
in that region, with a somewhat higher mean annual tempe- 
rature. In the alluvial deposits of Canstadt, in Wiirtem- 
berg, a class of shells indicating a similar condition of climate 
has been discovered. ) 
The evidence furnished by the animals found most abun- 
dantly with the Mammoth in Hurope and Siberia, Mr. 
Howorth thinks, points to the same conclusion as that of the 
plants and mollusca. 
The same mild and equable condition which allowed of the 
Mammoth living in Northern Siberia during Pleistocene 
times thus equa!ly prevailed over the whole of Hurope. We 
have seen that, according to the Physical Theory, this con- 
dition of climate was in every respect precisely what it 
ought to have been on the supposition that it was interglacial. 
It was a condition mild, equable, uniform, humid, and of a 
higher mean annual temperature than we have at the present 
day. There is, however, direct and positive evidence that 
this condition of climate was interglacial; for the facts both 
of geology and of palzontology show that it was preceded 
and succeeded by a state of things of a wholly opposite 
character. 
Lhe Mammoth Glacial as well as Interglanal.— Although 
the Mammoth could have lived in Arctic Siberia only during 
an interglacial period, it does not foliow that it must have 
perished during the succeeding glacial period. When the 
cold came on, and the vegetation on which it subsisted began 
to disappear, it would move southwards, and would continue 
its march as the cold and severity of the winters increased. 
* Geol. Mag. June 1881. 
