Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/98

 

CHAPTER IV.

BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL CHANGES IN NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF MAN.—THE PLEIOCENE PERIOD.

British Pleiocene Strata.—Geography of Britain in the Pleiocene Age.—Evidence of Icebergs in the North Sea, off the Coast of Britain.—The Pleiocene Flora.—Pleiocene Climate.—Lower Pleiocene Mammalia of France.—Upper Pleiocene Mammalia of France and Italy.—Pleiocene Mammalia in Italy.—Pleiocene Mammalia in Britain.—Important Characters of Fauna.—The Development of Antlers in the Deer.—The Retreat of the Quadrumana from Europe.—Evidence of Pleiocene Man in France and Italy unsatisfactory.

We have seen in the two preceding chapters that man had no place in the Eocene and Meiocene faunas, because they present no traces of other living mammalian species. In this chapter we shall see that one living species, if not more, does occur in the Pleiocene strata of France and Italy, and that therefore the improbability of man having lived in Europe at that time is proportionally lessened. It is, however, very unlikely that he will ever be found in the Pleiocene strata of this country, because they are either purely marine, or consist of freshwater accumulations, which have been worked over and, for the most part, destroyed by the action of the waves on the beach during the depression of the land beneath the sea.