PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
49 
have either become extinct or still live in modified forms in 
our domestic breeds, such as the great urus and the long- 
fronted ox. None of these post-glacial deposits had ever 
yielded a single trace of any of the more characteristic of 
the mammals which occupied North-Western Europe dur¬ 
ing the mild stages of the Glacial Period. All these had 
disappeared from the European fauna. Again, the oldest 
human relics obtained from the post-glacial beds were 
Neolithic—that is to say, they pertained to what is called 
the New Stone period, when men in this and other coun¬ 
tries of Europe used stone implements, which were often 
well-polished. The older or Palaeolithic tribes of men 
lived in Europe during the preceding Glacial Period, but 
they had vanished from the scene along with the great 
pachyderms long before Neolithic man appeared in these 
latitudes. 
Dr Geikie then proceeded to point out certain con¬ 
clusions which could be established by the facts he had 
adduced. He showed that the phenomena presented by 
the submarine bogs and trees proved that the land had 
formerly extended seawards. Not only so, but the former 
greater horizontal and vertical range of forest trees in these 
islands and Scandinavia demonstrated that a climate better 
suited to an extensive forest growth formerly prevailed. 
This was very plain from the simple fact that Northern 
Norway, now bare and treeless, was formerly covered with 
forests all the way from Cape Lister in the south to 
Nordvaranger in the extreme north. Similar facts hold 
true of Northern Scotland, the Hebrides, Orkney, Shet¬ 
land, the Eserde Islands, and Iceland. Since that great 
extension northwards of forest growth there has been not 
only a loss of land but a deterioration of climate. 
The next subject taken up was that of Praised Beaches. 
These old beaches proved that the land has at one time 
been lower than it is now. The two best-known and 
most distinctly - marked beaches in Scotland occurred 
at the height of 25 to 30 feet and 45 to 50 feet re¬ 
spectively—the latter being of course the older of the two. 
The great carse-lands of the Tay and the Forth were 
formed beneath the level of the sea when the tide in those 
estuaries flowed many miles further into the interior than 
now. Remains and relics of Neolithic man occurred in 
the older of the two terraces, while relics of the Bronze 
and Iron Ages were met with in the lower and younger 
terrace. The relation of these ancient terraces to the 
buried forest-beds of the peat-hogs was then pointed out, 
and it was shown that the lower forest-bed and peat lay 
underneath the oldest or 45-50 feet terrace, while the 
upper forest-bed and peat rested upon the surface of that 
terrace and the 25-30 feet terrace. This succession held 
good both for Scotland and England, and also for Ireland. 
It was evident from these facts that the first great exten¬ 
sion of forests took place long anterior to the formation of 
the raised beaches;—that afterwards the land was sub¬ 
merged to a depth of 50 feet or so, and then gradually re¬ 
elevated to a greater height than at present;—and that the 
second forest growth belongs to that final period of eleva¬ 
tion. Upon the opposite coasts of the Continent evidence 
of similar changes was forth-coming; so that we were sure 
that the vicissitudes which accompanied the formation of 
the Post-glacial and Recent deposits of our islands were not 
local, but characterised a very large area of North-Western 
Europe. 
Some interesting facts in connection with the shells 
of the raised beaches were then dwelt upon. It was 
shown that in the old beaches of Norway and Sweden, 
and even in those of Scotland, distinct traces of a more 
genial climate could be seen. Thus many shells of south¬ 
ern types occur in the shell-beds of Norway,—some of 
them being no longer denizens of the neighbouring seas,— 
while others, although still represented there, were not 
only much less abundant but of smaller size than in post¬ 
glacial times. In like manner great beds of mussel-shells 
occurred in raised beaches in Spitzbergen, but the mussel 
does not now live so far north. In Greenland we were 
confronted with similar facts, and the same had been re¬ 
corded from the coasts of Nova Scotia and New England. 
Dredgings in the northern seas had also acquainted us 
with the remarkable fact, that living Mediterranean forms 
still occurred here and there in those regions. They had 
been met with off the coasts of Norway, the coasts of 
Shetlands, and the west coasts of Scotland and Ireland; 
and similar phenomena have been observed in the Icelandic 
seas. In the Gulf of St Lawrence the evidence under that 
head was very striking. Thus genuine colonies of southern 
molluscs occur in that gulf and off the coast of Nova 
Scotia, which are completely isolated from their co-species 
of the southern coast of New England, and surrounded on 
all sides by more northern forms. And not only so, but 
the evidence showed that at an earlier period these colonies 
were much more extensive. 
Having completed his outline of the chief or leading- 
evidence, Dr Geikie next proceeded to indicate the general 
conclusions which appeared to be forced upon us by a 
careful consideration of that evidence. During late gla¬ 
cial times, when the great snow-fields and glaciers were 
melting away, the arctic-alpine flora and fauna occupied 
the low grounds of Central Euroxie, but as the climate 
became less extreme, they gradually retreated north¬ 
wards to higher latitudes, while such as remained in 
