RELICS OF MAN IN THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 293 



shire, and probably even farther north still ; and from the 

 borders of Asia to the Western Ocean. Despite the pres- 

 ence of numerous fierce carnivora — lions, hyenas, tigers, 

 and others — Europe at that time, with its shady forests, 

 its laurel- margined streams, its broad and deep-flowing 

 rivers, a country in every way suited to the needs of a 

 race of hunters and fishers — must have been no unpleas- 

 ant habitation for palaeolithic man. 



" This, however, is only one side of the picture. There 

 was a time when the climate of Pleistocene Europe pre- 

 sented the strongest contrast to those genial conditions — 

 a time when the dwarf birch of the Scottish Highlands, 

 and the arctic willow, with their northern congeners, grew 

 upon the low grounds of middle Europe. Arctic animals, 

 such as the musk sheep and the reindeer, lived then, all 

 the year round, in the south of France ; the mammoth 

 ranged into Spain and Italy ; the glutton descended to 

 the shores of the Mediterranean ; the marmot came down 

 to the low grounds at the foot of the Apennines ; and the 

 lagomys inhabited the low-lying maritime districts of 

 Corsica and Sardinia. The land and fresh water shells of 

 many Pleistocene deposits tell a similar tale ; boreal, high 

 alpine, and hyperborean forms are characteristic of these 

 accumulations in central Europe ; even in the southern 

 regions of our continent the shells testify to a former 

 colder and wetter climate." * 



In Mr. Geikie's view these facts indicate two Glacial 

 periods, with an intervening epoch of mild climate. In 

 the opinion of others they are readily explainable by the 

 coming on and departure of a single Ice age, with its vari- 

 ous minor episodes. 



* Prehistoric Europe, p. 67. 



