CONTAINING FLINT IMPLEMENTS, AND ON THE LOESS. 
285 
the vicinity of Aralsk, and particularly in the winter, notwithstanding the frost.” The 
January temperature of this part of Asia falls as low as between 14° and 10°Fahr. 
The other is the Hippopotamus. Remains of this latter creature are met with at 
St. Roch, but none are yet recorded from Menchecourt. It is found also in abundance 
at Bedford. In the various flint-implement-bearing localities it is confined to the low- 
level gravels. Should this prove to be the rule, which I am not prepared yet to assert, 
it will be one of some interest. The difficulty felt about the possibility of the Hippo- 
potamus living in a severe climate, arises from the habits of this creature leading it to 
pass so much of its time in the water. But if the possibility, so far as regards the supply 
of food and protection by special covering against the cold, of the other large pachy- 
derms living in such a climate be admitted, then why should not the Hippopotamus 
also have been fitted for a cold climate, provided it partook of the same special con- 
ditions. Like its congeners the Elephant and Rhinoceros, this Hippopotamus belongs 
to an extinct species, and it becomes a question whether, like them, it may not have 
been adapted to endure the rigours of a severer climate than the living species of these 
genera can now endure. 
Plants . — On this point our ground is almost barren. A few traces of decomposed 
wood, and one solitary small specimen, apparently of a branch of the common Chara , from 
Menchecourt, are all we possess from the places under review. This plant is found in 
almost all the rivers of Europe, extending as far as the Volga in lat. 56° and 60° N. 
After examining the Fauna and Flora of the low-level gravels, we cannot but feel that 
the premises from which we have to draw our conclusions respecting the climate of the 
period are still limited. The physical features show an absence of those marked 
indications of ice-action we detect in the high-level gravels, but point to the presence 
of ice in quantity sufficient to transport large boulders. The shells throw a little 
more light on the question, showing the continued prevalence of a northern group, into 
which, however, several southern forms have been introduced. The Mammalia continue, 
with few exceptions, to give evidence of the persistence of a rigorous climate. On the 
whole, although the climate may have been less severe than that of the previous period, 
it is probable that the winter temperature was not higher than some point between 15° 
and 25°. The circumstance that the old valleys differ from the excavations made by 
existing rivers — which cut deep gorges rather than broad valleys with sloping sides — 
rather confirms the opinion that the winter cold and spring floods may have diminished 
from year to year throughout the period of the valley-gravels, the result having been to 
cause the channels made by these old rivers to be of gradually contracting dimensions : 
hence possibly the difference in width between the top and the base of C (fig. 19, p. 298), 
and hence in part the sloping sides of the valleys. 
Loess, low-level. — I have found in this deposit at Menchecourt, besides the remains of Mammalia common 
to the underlying sands and gravel, — 
Avion ater. hispida. Pupa vnarginata. Pisidium amnicum. 
Limax agrestis. nemoralis. Vitrina diaphana. fontinale. 
Clausilia ( rugosa ?). Helix arbustorwm, var. Zonites radiatulus. Pupa, Helix, and Arion are abun- 
Suceinea elegans . pulchella Zua lubrica. dant; Pisidium rare. 
