﻿194 EVOLUTION IN THE PAST 



ordinarily big animals, appears to have become extinct 

 (E. meridionalis). " Sabre-toothed " cats were certainly 

 in Europe at the commencement of the Period, but it is 

 not clear if they formed a part of the inter-glacial fauna. 

 The principal butchers on the continent seem to have been 

 big lions of African type (Felis spelcea). 



SIBERIA The condition of Siberia during the Inter-glacial Epoch 

 cannot, for want of data, be determined. It seems probable 

 that its climatic fluctuations had not been moving pari passu 

 with those of Europe. At any rate an influx of animals from 

 western Siberia to Europe took place during the Inter-glacial 

 Epoch ; and the various emigrants formed a significant 

 portion of the fauna. There may have been some important 

 changes in Siberian climate to prompt this movement ; 

 or it may have been the result of greater facilities for migra- 

 tion, owing to some redistribution of land and water on the 

 border lands. The route of the emigrants seems to have been 

 between the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea, across 

 the site of the moss-clad, treeless plains now known as the 

 Kirghiz Steppes. From these dreary scenes herds of rein- 

 deer (Rangifer tarandus), and saiga antelope (Saiga tartaricd) 



EUROPE were now appearing in various parts of Europe. Arctic 

 foxes (C. lagopus), and badgers (Meles) were also among 

 the new arrivals ; and elk, musk-oxen, wolverines, and 

 " cave " bears — frequenters of Europe during the Glaciation — 

 were greatly reinforced. The so-called Gigantic Irish Deer 

 (C. giganteus) was also in Europe at this time. It is not 

 clear if the species originated in Europe ; in later times 

 it was represented in Ireland in great numbers. These 

 animals were closely allied to the fallow deer, and must have 

 been magnificent creatures. The antlers in some instances 

 measured as much as twelve feet across, and weighed over 

 a hundredweight. 



There was thus a strange collection of life on the continent 

 during the Inter-glacial Epoch. The climate, however, 

 was of course not uniform, and must have varied from warm 

 and temperate to an intense cold in the plateaux and moun- 

 tainous regions. A great deal of the land, released from ice, 

 probably had only a scanty covering of mosses and scrub 



