THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 239 



for example, tells us that in the autumn of 1874, after a long 

 continuation of rainy weather and north-west winds, he found in 

 sheltered coves on the coast of Malta, facing the island of Sicily, 

 great numbers of land-shells, which were certainly not indige- 

 nous to Malta. " On examination they proved to be all dead 

 shells, plugged at the mouth with a tenacious blue clay which 

 converted them into floats. These had doubtless been washed 

 down by the flooded rivers of Sicily, and discharged in vast 

 numbers into the Mediterranean. The prevalent north-west 

 winds had wafted them, along with fragments of pumice-stone 

 and broken reeds, to the coast of Malta." x 



The mammalian remains characteristic of the loss belong to 

 the northern group, and accord perfectly with the facies of the 

 mollusca. They betoken decidedly colder climatic conditions 

 than are at present experienced in Central Europe, and may 

 quite well have subsisted in regions exposed to severe winter 

 cold and considerable humidity. 



The conclusion we come to, then, is simply this, that the 

 loss of the great river-valleys of Central Europe is merely the 

 flood-loam of the Glacial Period. The upland- or hill-loss belongs 

 upon the whole to an earlier date than that which is found 

 within the valleys themselves. It is the inundation-mud which 

 was laid down by the rivers when they flowed at higher levels. 

 After these rivers had succeeded in deepening their beds suffi- 

 ciently, their flood-waters were unable to overflow upon the 

 plateaux, and the deposition of loss was then confined to the 

 valleys themselves. The loss and the ancient river-gravels are 

 therefore, as Mr. Prestwich has maintained, merely terms of one 

 and the same series. 



Hitherto I have spoken only of the flooded rivers that 

 descended from alpine regions ; but what about the water which 

 must have escaped from the ice all along the borders of the 

 massive mer de glace which extended in Germany down to the 

 50th parallel of latitude ? It is extremely probable, nay, I will 

 even venture to say, certain, that a very large proportion of the 



1 The Zoologist, May 1879. - " 



