Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 28.djvu/522

428 rature, rather than to an insurmountable mountain-range, since they are absent from Provence and Nice, on the French side of the Alpine barrier. The Pouched Marmot (Spermophilus citillus) of the Don and Volga, found its way as far west as Somersetshire; and the Hamster of Siberia extended as far west as Provence. The Alpine Hare, now found only in the colder climates of Northern Europe (with the solitary exception of Ireland), occupied the valley of the Rhine, at least as far down as Schussenried, in Suabia; and the Alpine Marmot lived then as now on the shores of the Mediterranean, near Mentone, The Ibex and Chamois ranged throughout Germany, as far north as Belgium, and occupied the south of France; and the former ranged as far to the south as Mentone and Gibraltar. The two carnivores now characteristic of the arctic regions, the Glutton and the Arctic Fox, have been discovered, the one as far to the south-west as Eastern France, and the other as far as Schussenried; and at one time they doubtless occupied the whole of Germany and Northern Russia. The latter has not been found either in Britain or France. If the present habits of these animals be any index to their mode of life in the Pleistocene age, their presence in France, Germany, and Britain implies that the climate was severe, that it must have been analogous to that which they now enjoy on the tops of lofty mountains, or in the severe climate of the northern steppes in Asia and the high northern latitudes of America. But this conclusion is diametrically opposed by the evidence afforded by the Lion, Hippopotamus, and Spotted Hyæna. On the one hand, we meet with a group of animals throughout Italy and Spain and passing as far north as the latitude of Yorkshire, which are now peculiar to hot climates; on the other hand, we have a group of animals peculiar to cold climates, occupying in full force the whole of the region north of the Alps and Pyrenees. And the remains of these two groups of animals are so associated together in the caves and river-deposits of this region, that it is impossible to deny the fact that it was the common feeding-ground of both. And although it may be objected that the Spotted Hyæna, Lion, and Felis caffer may have been endowed with the same elasticity of constitution as the living Tiger, which is equally fitted to endure the severity of a Siberian winter on the shores of the Sea of Aral, and the intense tropical heat of Bengal, the same objection cannot be made to the Hippopotamus, because there is no case on record of any living species of herbivore being fitted at once for a cold and a hot climate.

The difficulty, however, offered by this conflict of testimony vanishes away, if we examine the conditions under which animals migrate from one area to another, according to the season. Sir John Franklin writes that the migrations of the animals in North America afford a means of foretelling the severity of the season. If the Reindeer retreat far south, then a severe winter is to be apprehended; if, on the contrary, they remain very nearly in their usual winter haunts, the season invariably is a mild one. The Reindeer of Northern