Ch. X.] XOMEXCLATURE. 107 



CHAPTER X. 



RECENT AXD POST-PLIOCENE PERIODS. 



Recent and Post-pliocene periods — Terms defined — Formations of the Recent 

 period — Modern littoral deposits containing works of art near Xaples — Danish 

 peat and shell mounds — Swiss lake-dwellings — Periods of stone, bronze, and 

 iron — Form of human skulls of the Recent period — Post-pliocene formations — 

 Coexistence of man with extinct mammalia — Higher and Lower-level Valley- 

 gravels — Loess or inundation mud of the Xile, Rhine, &c. — Antiquity of Post- 

 pliocene Lake-terraces in Switzerland — Upraised marine strata in Sardinia — 

 Origin of caverns — Remains of man and extinct quadrupeds in cavern deposits 

 — Cave, of Kirkdale — Reindeer period of south of France — Australian cave- 

 breccias — Geographical relationship of the provinces of living vertebrata and 

 those of extinct Post-pliocene species — Extinct struthious birds of Xew Zealand 

 — Fluctuations of climate in Post-glacial period — Comparative longevity of 

 species in the mammalia and testacea — Teeth of recent and Post-pliocene mam- 

 malia. 



From the general tables, given at the end of the last chapter, the 

 reader will have learned that the uppermost or newest strata are 

 called Post-tertiary, as being more modern than the Tertiary. It will 

 also be observed that the Post-tertiary formations are divided into 

 two subordinate groups: the Eecent, and Post-pliocene. In the 

 former, or the Recent, the mammalia as well as the shells are iden- 

 tical with species now living; whereas in the Post-pliocene a part, 

 and often a considerable part, of the mammalia belong to extinct spe- 

 cies. To this nomenclature it may be objected that the term Post- 

 pliocene should in strictness include all geological monuments poste- 

 rior in date to the Pliocene ; but when I have occasion to speak of 

 the whole collectively, I shall call them Post-tertiary, and reserve the 

 term Post-pliocene for the older Post-tertiary formations, while the 

 Upper or newer ones will be called " Recent." 



Cases will occur where it may be scarcely possible to draw the 

 boundary line between the Recent and Post-pliocene deposits ; and 

 we must expect these difficulties to increase rather than diminish 

 with every advance in our knowledge, and in proportion as gaps are 

 rilled up in the scries of records. 



In 1839 I proposed the term Pleistocene as an abbreviation for 

 Xewer Pliocene, and it soon became popular, having been adopted by 

 the late Edward Forbes in his admirable essay on " The Geological 

 Relations of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles;" but 

 he applied the term almost precisely in the sense in which I shall use 

 Post-pliocene in this volume, and not as short for Xewer Pliocene. 

 In order to prevent confusion, I think it best entirely to abstain from 



