Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/24

16 with these changes a process of elevation of the land set in and continued until a large portion of Western Europe stood so high as to convert the present beds of the Irish Sea, the English Channel and the North Sea into dry land. The Thames and all the rivers of the east coast united with the Rhine and the Elbe to form what must have been a noble river flowing northwards and ultimately debouching into the sea, not far from the Faröe Islands. The Seine and the Somme formed a junction in the English Channel and, after gathering the surplus waters of the south of England and the north of France, continued their course as a fair-sized river to the Atlantic, some 100 miles farther west. The Severn received some streams from the basin of the Irish Sea, the lowest portion of which was then occupied by a chain of fresh-water lakes, and then followed a similar course to the Atlantic. Thus Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey and other islands formed part of the inland uplands of a European continent.

While these far-reaching changes were in progress under a climate becoming more and more ameliorated, these richly wooded and well-watered plains (now mostly submerged) became attractive feeding-ground for large herds of grazing animals, followed of course by bears, lions and hyænas, whose natural prey they were. It was, in all probability, during the stage of maximum geniality that so many sub-tropical animals, such as the