510 
the reindeer as existing in the great Hercynian forest that 
overspread Northern Germany, along with the gigantic urus 
and the elk. This statement is singularly corroborated by 
the discovery in the peat bogs of Pomerania, according to 
Professor Nilsson, of the remains of these three animals ; so 
that there can be no doubt of his accuracy in this particular 
instance. From some cause or other the temperature has 
increased on the banks of the Rhine ; and from the fact that 
the reindeer cannot live, at the present day, south of the 
Baltic, we may recognize a proof of a diminution of cold 
in that region since it was inhabited by those of a severe 
climate. This change of temperature is very generally 
accounted for by the drainage of morasses and the cutting 
down of woods ; but may it not, with more probability, be 
ascribed to a much deeper cause — to a secular change ope- 
rating throughout Europe, which began in the Pleistocene, and 
was going on throughout the Prehistoric, and happened, inci- 
dentally, to be noticed, as we have seen, in Historical periods? 
The presence of the reindeer in the Prehistoric deposits of 
England, Ireland, and Scotland, affords precisely the same 
evidence as those mentioned by Caesar, as at the time they 
lived in Britain and Ireland the climate must have been 
suited for them. There may have been oscillations of tem- 
perature, but the progress, on the whole, seems to have been 
gradual, from the intense cold of the glacial period to the 
temperate "insular climate" obtaining in Britain at the 
present day. In conclusion, I most earnestly recommend 
a careful and minute examination of the contents of the 
Prehistoric and Pleistocene caverns which occur in the moun- 
tain limestone districts of this county, as from such details 
much important information may, doubtless, be added to 
our knowledge of the former inhabitants of Pleistocene 
Yorkshire. 
