GLACIAL SUCCESSION IN EUROPE. 131 



longer indigenous to Schleswig-Holstein) aspen, willow, white birch, hazel, hornbeam, 

 oak, and juniper. Associated with these are Ilex and Trapa natans, the presence of 

 which, as Dr Weber remarks, betokens a climate like that of western Middle Germany. 

 Amongst the plants is a water-lily, which occurs also in the interglacial beds of Switzer- 

 land, but is not now found in Europe. The evidence furnished by this and other inter- 

 glacial deposits in North Germany shows that, after the ice-sheet of the lower diluvium 

 had melted away, the climate became as temperate as that which is now experienced in 

 Europe. Another recent find of the same kind is the "diluvial" peat, &c, of Klinge 

 in Brandenburg, described by Professor Nehring.* These beds have yielded remains of 

 elk (Cervus alces), rhinoceros (species not determined), a small fox (?), and megaceros. 

 This latter is not the typical great Irish deer, but a variety (C. megaceros, var. Ruffii, 

 Nehring). The plant-remains include pine, fir {Picea excelsa), hornbeam, warty birch 

 (Betula verrucosa), various willows (Salix repens, S. aurita, S. caprea ? S. cinerea), 

 hazel, poplar (?), common holly, &c. It is worthy of note that here also the interglacial 

 water-lily (Cratopleura helvetica) of Schleswig-Holstein and Switzerland makes its 

 appearance. Dr Weber writes me that the facies of this flora implies a well-marked 

 temperate insular climate (Seeklima). The occurrence of holly in the heart of the 

 Continent, where it no longer grows wild, is particularly noteworthy. The evidence 

 furnished by such a flora leads one to conclude that at the climax of the genial inter- 

 glacial epoch, the Scandinavian snowfields and glaciers were not more extensive than 

 they are at present. 



The presence of the upper diluvium, however, proves that such genial conditions 

 eventually passed away, and that an ice-sheet again invaded North Germany. But this 

 later invasion was not on the same scale as that of the preceding one. The geographical 

 distribution of the upper diluvium and the position of large terminal moraines put this 

 quite beyond doubt. The boulder-clay in question spreads over the Baltic provinces of 

 Germany, extending south as far as Berlin, and west into Schleswig-Holstein and Den- 

 mark. At the climax of this later cold epoch glaciers occupied all the fiords of Norway, 

 but did not advance beyond the general coast-line. Norway, at that time, must have 

 greatly resembled Greenland — the inland ice covering the interior of the country, and 

 sending seawards large glaciers that calved their icebergs at the mouths of the great 

 fiords. In the extreme south, however, the glaciers did not quite reach the sea, but piled 

 up large terminal moraines on the coast-lands, which may be followed thence into Sweden 

 in an easterly direction by the lower end of Lake Wener and through Lake Wetter. A 

 similar belt of moraines marks out the southern termination of the ice-sheet in Finland. 

 Between Sweden and Finland lies the basin of the Baltic, which, at the epoch in ques- 

 tion, was filled with ice, forming a great Baltic glacier. This glacier overflowed the 

 Aland Islands, Gottland, and Oland, fanning out as it passed towards the south-west and 



* Naturvrissenschaftliche Woclienschrift, Bd. vii. (1892), No. 4, p. 31. The plants were determined by Dr Weber, 

 Professor Wittmack, and Herr Warnstorf. [More recent investigations have considerably increased our knowledge of 

 this flora. See Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift, Bd. vii. (1892), Nr. 24, 25. Ausland, 1892, Nr. 20.] 



