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THE PHYSICAL HEO&EAPHY OF THE MEDITER- 
RANEAN HURINH THE PLEISTOCENE AOE. 
By W. BOYD DAWKINS, M.A., F.R.S, 
[PLATE XCVII.] 
I N a preceding essay* we have seen that north-western Europe 
was elevated, during the Pleistocene Age, to an extent of 
at least 600 ft. above its present level, so that Ireland was 
united to Britain, and Britain was joined to the mainland of 
Europe, proof of this elevation being dependent upon the 
soundings on one hand and the distribution of the fossil 
mammalia on the other. Such a change must necessarily 
have affected the whole physical conditions of the area, since 
the substitution of a mass of land for a stretch of sea and the 
higher altitude of the land would tend to produce climatal 
extremes of considerable severity. It is indeed no wonder 
that, during this time of continental elevation, the hills of 
Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Cumbria, and Scotland should 
have been crowned with glaciers, or that there should have 
been a migration to and fro of animals, comparable to that 
which is now going on in Siberia and the northern portions of 
North America. I propose in the present essay to apply the 
same modes of investigation to the Mediterranean area. The 
condition of southern Europe at that time has a most im- 
portant bearing on any conclusion which may be drawn as to 
the Pleistocene climate in France, Grermany, or Britain. For 
if it be proved that a mass of land then extended where the 
Mediterranean sea now rolls, the extension would increase both 
the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter in central 
and north-western Europe. 
The geological evidence that the Mediterranean region has 
* the Pleistocene Climate and the Relation of the ^Pleistocene 
Mammalia to the Glacial Period.” — P. S. Review, Oct. 1871. 
