would warrant the classification of the one as Tertiary and the other
as Quaternary.
All the Preglacial animals now alive are to be found in temperate regions; and there is every reason to believe that the extinct species also rejoiced in a temperate or moderately warm climate.
We have now the materials for the definition of the Postglacial mammals. The Preglacial Ursus speloeus?, Sorex, Talpa Europoea, Cervus megaceros?, C. capreolus, C. elaphus, Bos primigenius, Hippopotamus major, Equus fossilis, Elephas antiquus and Castor fiber held their own ground against the invaders from other geographical provinces. The Leptorhine Rhinoceros of Owen, although absent from the forest- bed, is found abundantly in the Pliocenes in the north of Italy. All that can be said about the Cats, the Brown and Grizzly Bears, the Badger, Ermine, Stoat, Otter, Wolf and Fox, Bison, Wild Boar, Hare, Rabbit, Arvicola agrestis, A. pratensis, and the common Mouse, is that none of them have yet been found in the Forest-bed. The remaining group of Postglacial mammals, consisting of the Glutton, the Reindeer, Elk, Musk-sheep, two kinds of pouched Marmots, the Cave-pika, the Lemming, and the two extinct species Rhinoceros tichorhinus and Elephas primigenius, appear in strong contrast to the other animals. They probably migrated, as M. Lartet has suggested, from their ancient home in Siberia ; and their advent in Britain defines the Postglacial from the Preglacial fauna. The presence of Palaeolithic Man, the Cave-lion, and Cave-hyaena may also be considered characteristic.
§ 10. Relation of Postglacial to Prehistoric Mammals. — The Sheep, Goat, Bos longifrons, and Dog make their appearance for the first time in the Prehistoric epoch in alluvia and bone-caves, sometimes with and sometimes without the traces of Man. All four are found round the Pfahlbauten of the Stone age in Switzerland * ; and there is no evidence against the supposition that they may have been introduced by the hand of man into Central and Western Europe. The whole group of Postglacial Pachydermata, as well as the Cave- lion, Cave-hyaena, and Cave-bear, the Lynx, Machairodus, and all the northern Mammalia, with the exception of the Elk and Reindeer, had vanished away at the close of the Postglacial epoch. The Bison, moreover, was no longer found in our island. The rest of the Postglacial mammals, comprising, for the most part, the smaller species, lived on, such as the Brown Bear, Irish Elk, and the others that are given in the Table of distribution.
§ 11. Characteristic Postglacial Mammals. — The following may be regarded as the fossil mammals that characterize British Postglacial deposits from those that went before and followed after: —
Palaeolithic Man. The Glutton. The Cave-bear ? The Grizzly Bear? The Cave-lion. The Cave-hyaena. The Panther ?
The Musk-sheep. The tichorhine Rhinoceros. The Mammoth. The Lemming. The Cave-pika. The Pouched Marmot. Spermophilus erythrogenoides.
- Rutimeyer. Fauna der Pfahlbauten.
VOL. XXV. PART I. Q
