106 
Dr. J. ÉH1K 
my litterary predecessors were predominantly based on the appreciation 
of recent faunistical conditions. 
The exclusive consideration of geological features, due to the 
influence of the ice, can not offer a suitable general aspect of the glacial 
period, even the synchronical oscillations of the glaciers having been 
limited to a relatively restricted zone, so that the faunistical changes 
eventually caused by them will prove to be of a trifling importance. 
Briefly speaking: the so called „ interglacial periods “ were unable to 
produce faunistical changes. Even if the quoted oscillations are synchronical 
according to some authors, who would he able to determine their 
succession without the aid of faunistical data? And if, despite of all 
this, one is inclined to speak of „interglacial periods“, one would he 
just as much entitled to suppose twenty „interglacials“ as to presume 
four, not reckoning with the fact that in the case of such an interpretation 
„interglacial periods“ would exist even today. I merely ask, how the 
number of these „interglacial periods“ could be determined? I am 
afraid the determination would result in relying on rather individual 
opinions, in accordance with the special supposition of the various authors. 
Tthe Pleistocene may be divided into three periods, composing the 
preglaciale the glacial and the postglacial strata. The preglacial period 
begins with the northern Forestbedfauna, terminating with the largest 
extension of the ice, i. e. by the stratification of the southernmost Lemming- 
beds. The lower Lemming-beds are the product of the glacial period. 
The postglacial period contains the upper Lemming-beds, with exclusive 
steppe elements, terminating after the sylvicol faunae having assured 
their predominance in the northern zones as well. 
The faunae of Sirgenstein and Wildscheuer. 
I. The fauna of the lower diluvial strata. (Containing the „Primitiv- 
Mousterien“ and the „La Quina-Industry“). 
Elephas primigenius 
Bison priscus 
Rangifer tarandus 
Jbex sp. 
Equus caballus 
Felis lynx (?) 
Ursus spelaeus 
Sirgenstein. 
Canis lupus 
Canis sp. (?) 
Canis lagopus 
Lepus variabilis 
Myodes torquatus 
Lagopus albus 
Lagopus alpinus 
