336 The American Geologist. Juno, i898 
no one can doubt that an innnense gap in development exists 
between the two. 
It was not easy to assign to this vast gap in English pre- 
history any sufficient cause or to show why so complete a 
break should exist in English archaeology. Geology at 
length offered a solution of the problem which apparently 
meets every condition and is capable of removing every objec- 
tion. Prof. James Geikie in his work on the "Great 
Ice Age," by an elaborate and powerful argument, 
urged and sustained an explanation whicn can hardly 
fail to commend itself to the scientific student of 
archaeology. Prof. Geikie called attention to the fact 
that no palaeolithic remams have been found in superficial 
deposits in that part of Britain which was covered by the ice 
of the last great ice-sheet or in his category the third recur- 
rence of glacial conditions (Neudeckian). The few specimens 
hitherto reported have been found in caves or similar protected 
places. Outside of this region, however, in the eastern and 
southern parts of the island palaeolithic remains occur in scores 
of spots on the very surface and in the gravels of the river- 
valleys. Consideration of this fact led Prof. Geikie to main- 
tain that its most rational explanation is that palaeolithic man, 
in at least the northern part of England antedated the last 
great ice-invasion and that the cause of the absence of his relics 
from the glaciated area is simply their destruction by the ice 
and the torrents flowing from the glacier. So simple an ex- 
planation and one sufftcient to meet all the facts of the case 
seems to leave nothing to be desired even when estimated 
alone, but when all the other circumstances that cluster about 
it and confirm it are taken into account its rejection becomes 
impossible. Thus Prof. Geikie dwells on the important co- 
incidence that what is true of palaeolithic man is equally true of 
the remarkable southern fauna that lived in England at the 
same time. This fauna, semi-tropical in its character, in- 
cluded such animals as the hippopotamus, rhinoceros, south- 
ern elephant, hyaena and many other forms indicating a very 
warm climate. Their remains also are lacking in the glaciated 
area of northern Britain save under conditions that wovild pro- 
tect them from the destructive action of the ice. Now it is 
well known that palaeolithic man was a member of the south- 
