268 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The diminutive elephants of the Mediterranean islands were all de- 

 scendants of the straight-tusked species E. antiquus. The researches of 

 Bate confirm this relationship. They attained a height not exceeding 

 five feet. The adaptability to which E. antiquus owed its wide geographic 

 distribution and continued existence through a long period of time may 

 account for its survival in the Mediterranean islands despite rapid dim- 

 inution in size under adverse circumstances. The true African elephant 

 (Loxodonta) never crossed the Mediterranean. 



The reduced existing fauna of the Island of Cyprus contains a min- 

 gling of Eurasiatic and north African mammals and shows the effects of 

 deforestation in historic times. Descendants of Eurasiatic ancestors pre- 

 vail in the Mediterranean islands. The recently discovered Myotragus 

 balearicus of the Pleistocene cave deposits of the Island of Majorca is 

 now regarded as related to the Rupicaprinae or Alpine chamois type 

 (Andrews). 



Second Glacial Stage — Saxoniajs', Mindel, Kansas 



The second glaciation was the greatest both in Europe and America. 

 We observe that the most extended drift sheets are those in the Scandi- 

 navian region, on the British Isles, around the northern Swiss Alps, and 

 from the Keewatin center west of Hudson Baj^ in British America. The 

 whole rise and fall of the Mindel glaciation in the Alps is estimated by 

 Penck as occupying a very long period of time. The snow line in the 

 Alpine region descended 1,300m. lower than at the present time. 



The only notable exceptions are in the Labrador region of eastern 

 North America where the main ice field was formed at a later stage, 

 known as the Illinoian. It also appears that the Third Glacial or Eiss 

 drift of the western Alps is the greatest in that region and of similar age 

 to the Illinoian. 



In this second glacial advance the Scandinavian ice field reached its 

 farthest southerly limits. In northwestern Europe this main Saxonian 

 (Geikie) glaciation extended to the northern slopes of the Carpathians, 

 the Sudetes, the Erz Gebirge, the Thuringian and the Harz Mountains. 

 From these ice sheets were given off the "Older Drift," or "Lower Dilu- 

 vium" of northern Germany, and in the Swiss Alps this Second glacia- 

 tion sent out its Mindel drift as the most extensive fringe along the 

 northern borders of the Alps ; on the eastern and southern borders of the 

 Alps the Second Glaciation was about as extensive as the Third glacia- 

 tion; on the western borders of the Alps the Second glaciation was less 

 extensive than the Third. Similar conditions prevailed in America; 

 from the Keewatin Centre the ice cap extended its drift southward into 



