No. 410.] THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 95 
At least this is the way I understand Dr. Scharff when he 
speaks of indigenous Alpine species. Following these came 
the newer Oriental invasion. During Pliocene times dry 
land gradually supplanted the sea to the north of the Alps, 
and their Biota (fauna and flora) poured into the plain. At 
that period Arctic species from the north (via Scandinavia, 
Great Britain, and France) and Lusitanian forms from the 
west found their way to the Alps. The true Siberian types 
came much later, vzz., in the Middle Pleistocene, making 
their appearance at the foot of the Alps, though it is doubtful 
whether many of them ever reached the mountains. Thus 
he accounts for the presence of the so-called Scandinavian 
species in the Alps, and vice versa, in two ways — first, an 
early northern invasion directly from Scandinavia to the Alps 
via England, and, second, by both Scandinavia and the Alps 
receiving a share of the Siberian colonists, parts of which 
went north, while others went south. Dr. Scharff is thus 
led to disagree with Forbes’s theory, once quite generally 
accepted, that this similarity between the mountain faunas of 
northern and southern Europe was due to a gradual forcing 
south of the northern species and north of the southern ones 
by the expanding glaciers on both sides, by their mingling in 
the intermediate territory and subsequent retreat to their old 
homes when the glaciers. receded, the northern forms mixed 
with some Alpine species and vice versa. Nehring’s Tundra 
theory is also dissented from in so far as it regards the Siberian 
animals as forming the nucleus of the faunas of these two areas. 
Dr. Scharff ends the summary of this chapter, and thus the 
book, with the following remarks: “ One of the most impor- 
tant conclusions obtained by this study of the flora in con- 
junction with the fauna, is that I have emphasised in most of 
the preceding chapters — viz., that the glacial period in Europe 
was not a time of extreme cold, and that its destructive 
effect on the animals and plants was by no means such as Is 
currently believed." : 
This last sentence is in a measure a clue to Dr. Scharff's 
Whole book, which must be read in the light of it. It must 
be admitted that he has made out a good case, from the 
