128 DISCUSSIONS IN CLIMATOLOGY. 



by Pleistocene Period, Professor Geikie means the so- 

 called Glacial Period, with its alternations of severe 

 Arctic climate and mild and genial conditions. * 



" An examination," he says, " of Pleistocene organic 

 remains leads us to conclude that strongly-contrasted 

 climatic conditions alternated during the Period. At 

 one time an extremely equable and genial climate 

 prevailed, allowing animals, which are now relegated 

 to widely-separated zones, to live throughout the year 

 in one and the same latitude. Hippopotamuses, 

 elephants, and rhinoceroses, Irish deer, horses, oxen, 

 and bisons then ranged from the borders of the 

 Mediterranean as far north at least as Middle Eng- 

 land and Northern Germany. In like manner, plants 

 which no longer occur together — some being banished 

 to hilly regions, while others are restricted to low 

 grounds, and yet others have retreated to the extreme 

 south of the Continent or to warmer regions beyond 

 the limits of Europe — lived side by side. The fig-tree, 

 the judas-tree, and the Canary laurel nourished in 

 Northern France along with the sycamore, the hazel, 

 and the willow. And we encounter in the Pleistocene 

 deposits of various countries in Europe the same 

 remarkable commingling of northern and southern 

 forms — of forms that demand a humid climate and 

 are capable of enduring considerable cold, together 

 with species which, while seeking moist conditions, 

 yet could not survive the cold of our present winters. 

 The testimony of the mammals and plants is confirmed 

 by that of the land and fresh- water mollusca — all the 

 evidence thus conspiring to demonstrate that the 

 climate of Pleistocene Europe was, for some time at 

 all events, remarkably equable and somewhat humid. 



* " Prehistoric Europe," p. 544. 



