494 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



otter, dog, beaver, wild-boar {Bus scrofa, L., ferns and palustris, 

 Kiitim.), domestic pig, horse, red-deer, paseng, sheep, ox (Bos 

 taurus), urus. The birds are represented by a swan (Cygnus 

 musicus, Temm.) ; amphibians, by the toad ; and insects by 

 Geotrupes vernalis, L. and G., G. putridarius, Erichs., Donacia 

 crassipes, Fabr., etc. Land- and freshwater-shells of living forms 

 were also abundant. The trees included Rhamnus catharticus, 

 L. (purging buckthorn), elm, walnut, oak (probably Quercus 

 pedunculated), hazel, birch (probably Betula pubescens, Ehrh.), 

 alder, willow (probably Salix fragilis, L.), yew, juniper, spruce 

 fir, and Scots fir. Other plants are Menyanthes trifoliata 

 (marsh trefoil), Poly 'stichum spinulosum, Koch.; Bquisetum arvense, 

 L., and E. limosum ; Hypnum aduncum, Hedw., and its variety 

 polycarpon, Schimp. ; H. fluitans, Dill, var., and var. submersum, 

 Schimp. ; H. falcatum ; H. pratense ; H. giganteum, Schimp. ; 

 H. scorpioides, Dill., etc. 



During the deposition of the clay which underlies the peat, 

 the country was covered, says M. Fliche, with spruce firs, pines, 

 willows, birches, and alders. But when the turbaries began to 

 accumulate the spruce firs had disappeared, although the pine 

 still flourished and continued to occupy the ground for a long 

 time, its remains occurring all through the forest-bed which 

 is buried in the peat. With the pine are associated yew and 

 juniper, but these are not so common, while by and by the pine 

 disappears and oak and elm become abundant. The old forest 

 thus presented an aspect which one no longer encounters in the 

 woodlands of Champagne; to meet with a similar assemblage 

 we must advance to the north-east as far as Haguenau or Bitche. 

 The pine and the yew have vanished, and the juniper remains 

 the only representative in Champagne of the old conifers, while 

 the oak is now more plentiful. The mosses confirm the results 

 furnished by a study of the trees. They are most characteristic 

 of the deeper part of the peat, and appear even in the underlying 

 clay. They all pertain to species or varieties which demand a 

 very wet habitat and cold climate, and some are most abundant 

 nowadays in Arctic regions. Many have abandoned the low 



