246 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



the supposition of its aeolian origin, we should be compelled to 

 believe that the winds blew outwards in all directions from the 

 mountain -regions, and were careful to confine themselves as 

 much as possible to the valleys ; we should further be forced to 

 conclude that they accumulated loss just in those very areas 

 which were liable to inundations of muddy water during the 

 Glacial Period, and that at the same time they neglected to 

 strew with dust those particular districts in which, for many 

 good reasons, glacial mud could not be deposited. 



3. The mammalian remains in the loss do not indicate a dry 

 climate. It is true, as Dr. Nehring has shown, that the fauna 

 of Thiede and Westeregeln has a prevalent steppe-character, but 

 commingled with pouched marmot, marmot, pika, jerboa, and 

 other animals characteristic of the Steppes occur hyaena, lion, 

 lemming, Arctic fox, reindeer, mammoth, and rhinoceros. These, 

 it is true, are represented by only a few remains, while relics of 

 the true steppe-fauna abound ; but mammoth and woolly rhin- 

 oceros, reindeer and other northern and cold-temperate forms, 

 are the most common forms met with in the loss generally, and 

 we cannot, therefore, look upon their occurrence at Thiede and 

 Westeregeln as exceptional. The presence of lion and hyaena 

 does not militate against this view. These carnivores may have 

 lived wherever their prey was in sufficient abundance. A dry 

 and dust-covered country, with a climate like that of the Eussian 

 Steppes, does not seem essential to the wants of the jerboas, 

 pouched marmots, marmots, and pikas, which are now met with 

 in those places. These animals certainly endure the aridity of 

 summer and the cold of winter, but there is apparently nothing 

 in their habits or constitution that renders them unfit to live in 

 regions of greater humidity. At a time when what are now the 

 Steppes of Eussia and the low grounds of the Ehine and the 

 Danube were liable to be inundated for months every year, many 

 animals which are now widely distributed over temperate and 

 boreal regions would necessarily be restricted in their range ; 

 and not only so, but species that now occupy different provinces 

 must formerly have lived in one and the same region. The 



