Page:The history of Little England beyond Wales and the non-Kymric colony settled in Pembrokeshire.pdf/37

Rh intense summer heat, the elevation a great severity of winter cold." Professor Prestwich estimates that the climate of the Thames, Somme, and Seine was in palæolithic times 20° of Fahrenheit colder than now, or such as would belong to a country 10° or 15° of latitude further north."

Perhaps it would be well to close this sketch of pleistocene Pembroke with these two extracts; but I venture to remind the reader that the pleistocene period was a troubled time, a time of great disturbance. The mountain tops subsided under the sea, and the bed of the ocean was upheaved, so that the beasts of the field pastured in its depths; then again it sank back nearly to its present level. All these changes took place about the time we speak of. Whether they were sudden or gradual it is impossible to say. If the former, then climate must have changed with each change; if the latter, it must have been so constantly altering that each year must have varied from its predecessor. One thing, however, is certain, namely, that upon a time the reindeer and the hippopotamus fed side by side in our fields.