100 
Dr. J. ÉHIK 
When studying the conditions after the withdrawel of the glaciers 
we must not forget to reckon with the enormous quantity of water pro¬ 
duced by the melting ice. The mass of ice existing at the glacial period 
in Europe and Asia, is estimated to 100 millions km 3 , a quantity which, 
if suddenly melted, would raise the level of all the Oceans and Seas 
by 18 m. 
The territories from which the ice withdrew were at the beginning 
populated by large-sized animals, followed by the larger carnivorous forms, 
the soil becoming habitable for smaller elements only after having been 
sufficiently dried up by the action of storms blowing all over the desert 
plains (steppes). Once the territory dried up, the small tundra inhabitants 
— the Lemmings and other forms — again made their appearance, and 
simultaneously with this begins the formation of a special faunistical 
complex, i. e. that of the steppe fauna. Thus, on the path of the with¬ 
drawing ice, the normal course of stratification continues, just as, before 
the glacial period, with the first stratum, now containing the fossils of large 
glacial animals, amongst which the bones of a few larger carnivorous 
species may be found ; the next strata will be characterised by the rests 
of numerous large and some smaller phytophagous mammals, and by 
numerous carnivora, the series terminating with the reappeared lemmings, 
their fossils being however accompanied in these strata by those of 
rather new elements belonging to the characteristic steppe fauna. Such 
localities are, as stated above, Thiede and Sirgenstein, though the latter 
being remarkable for the absence of the exclusive steppe elements, its 
fauna owing its origin to the glaciation of the Alps. And on each place, 
where the regression of the ice did not take place horizontally, viz, 
northwards, the glaciers withdrawing only in a vertical sense, i. e. being 
confined to the high mountains, the steppe elements will be absent, the 
highlands eo ipso excluding the presence of steppe-like formations. 
1 should like to point out furthermore a difference existing between 
the lower and upper Lemming-beds ; the dominant species of the first 
being represented by the Ob-lemming (Lemnius obensis) whilst in the 
second the majority of fossils belonging to the Banded Lemming (Dycros- 
tonyx torquatus)} In the tundra-formation encircling the southernmost 
limits of the ice, these two facies are situated immediately one over the 
other. This kind of stratification has been observed in the case of the 
Pálffy-cave and Peskő-cave in Hungary, for instance. 
Taking this into consideration we will be able to explain the 
1 J. Éhik, D. pleist. Fauna d. Pálffy-Höhle im Pozsonyer Komitat, Barlangkutatás 
(Höhlenforschung). Budapest, 1913. Bd. I. p. 87—94. 
