4G REV. D. GATH WHITLEY, PRIMEVAL MAN IN BELGIUM. 
sideration the cutting of deep valleys, and the scooping out of 
others, which, though previously existing, had been filled up with 
drift material. We have evidence in the implement-bearing drifts, 
that the rivers flowed during the human period at levels far above 
those of the present water-courses. We may note also such a great 
change as that shown by the disappearance of the old Solent river, 
and the severance of the Isle of Wight from the mainland. 
Then again as to “ the vast expanse of water ” with which it is 
assumed Western Europe was surrounded, we must note that in the 
South the Mediterranean area was far less than it is now. During 
the Pleistocene Age the general level of the land was higher than it 
is now ; and instead of occupying its present extensive basin, the 
Mediterranean Sea was then in all probability divided into two 
separate lakes ; for not only did a land barrier connect Northern 
Africa with the Iberian peninsula ; but to the East such islands as 
Malta and Sicily formed part of the mainland, and appear to have 
been another connecting link between Europe and the African 
continent. There is also evidence that the Nile country, at any 
rate, of Egypt has not been submerged since it was occupied by 
Palseolithic Man, as is proved by the recent remarkable discoveries 
made by Mr. Rh. de Eustafjaell of undisturbed Palaeolithic flint 
factories in the Western Desert, near Gebelen, Thebes, El-Mallah 
and Nagada. 
As to the supposed climate of the Pleistocene Age, I am much 
disposed to doubt that its general character was one of “ mild 
summers, and warm winters.” Not to speak of the mammoth and 
woolly rhinoceros, which some may think do not necessarily 
bespeak arctic conditions, are not such conditions demanded by the 
presence of such undoubted arctic species as the musk-ox, the arctic 
fox, the glutton, the reindeer and others 1 Surely it is far more 
probable that during at any rate a great part of the age the climate 
was one characterised by severe winters, and hot summers ; the 
former driving the northern fauna, even the musk-ox itself, as far 
south as the Pyrenees, whilst the hot summers would have enabled 
the African species to find their way along the river courses of 
Northern Europe, so that we find such a southern type as the 
hippopotamus as far to the north as Derbyshire and Yorkshire. 
It is owing to such a constant movement to and fro with the 
changing seasons, that the commingling of the respective groups of 
