the Classification of Pleistocene Strata, 151 



The mammalia from these deposits are linked to the Pliocene by 

 the Mh. megarhinus, and to the late Pleistocene by the Ovibos mos- 

 chatus. The presence of Machcerodus latklens in Kent's Hole, and 

 of the JRh. megarhinus in the cave at Oreston, tends to the conclu- 

 sion that some of the caves in the south of England contain a fauna 

 that was living before the late Pleistocene age. The whole assem- 

 blage of middle Pleistocene animals evinces a less severe climate 

 than in the late Pleistocene times. 



The fossil bones from the Eorest-bed of Norfolk and Suffolk show 

 that in the early Pleistocene mammalia there was a great mixture 

 of Pleistocene and Pliocene species. It is probable also that the 

 period was one of long duration ; for in it we find two animals which 

 are unknown on the continent, implying that the lapse of time was 

 sufficiently great to allow of the evolution of forms of animal life 

 hitherto unknown, and which disappeared before the middle and 

 late Pleistocene stages. 



The author criticised M. Lartet's classification of the Late Pleis- 

 tocene or Quaternary period by mfeans of the Cave-bear, Mammoth, 

 Reindeer, and Aurochs, and urged that, since the remains of all these 

 animals were intimately associated in the caves of Prance, Germany, 

 and Britain, and, so far as we know, the first two appeared and 

 disappeared together and the last two lived on into the Prehistoric 

 age, they did not afford a basis for a cr ronology. 



The latest of the three divisions of the British Pleistocene fauna 

 is widely spread through Prance, Germany, and Russia, from the 

 English Channel to the shores of the Mediterranean. The Middle 

 Pleistocene is represented by a river-deposit in Auvergne, and by a 

 cave in the Jura, in which the presence of the Machcerodus latidens, 

 and a non-tichorine Rhinoceros, and the absence of the charac- 

 teristic arctic group of the late Pleistocene and of all the peculiar 

 animals of the early Eorest-bed stage, prove that that era must be 

 Middle Pleistocene. The Early Pleistocene division is represented 

 in Erance by the river-deposit at Chartres, being characterized by 

 the presence of two non-Pliocine animals, Trogoniherium and Cervus 

 camutorum. 



The Pleistocene mammalia of the regions south of the Alps and 

 Pyrenees present no trace of truly arctic species, the Mammoth 

 being viewed as an animal fitted for the climatal conditions both 

 of Northern Siberia and of the southern states of America. It con- 

 tains Elephas africanus and Hyc&tia striata. 



The fauna of Sicily, Malta, and Crete differs considerably from 

 that described above, possessing some peculiar forms, such as Hip- 

 popotamus Pentlandi, Myooous melitensis and Elephas melitensis. 



The Pleistocene mammalia may be divided into five groups, each 

 marking a difference in the climate : — the first embracing those which 

 now live in hot countries; the second those which inhabit northern 

 regions, or high mountains, where the cold is severe ; the third 

 those which inhabit temperate regions ; a fourth those which are 

 found alike in hot and cold; and a fifth, which are extinct. 



There were three climatal zones, marked by the varying range of 



