The History of the European Fauna Part 5

Many other naturalists have worked in the direction I have indicated--namely, in grouping the British animals into several distinct a.s.semblages, without, however, taking their foreign range into consideration, or their origin. I have already referred to the useful work done by botanists, who have been the pioneers in the science of the geographical distribution of living organisms. Among the British naturalists who have applied the principles of Watson to zoology, A. G.

More deserves to be specially mentioned. He was the first to make a serious study of the British fauna on the lines laid down by that distinguished botanist. In conjunction with E. Boyd, he published a valuable essay on the "Distribution of b.u.t.terflies in Great Britain,"

and later on the birds were similarly dealt with. All the more important groups of animals are now being studied with a view to determining their exact range in these islands. Mr. Harvie-Brown, Mr. J.

W. Taylor, Mr. Eagle Clarke, Mr. Miller Christy, Mr. Ussher, Mr.

Barrington, and a number of others have considerably advanced our knowledge in this direction in recent years.

Any such contributions are to be welcomed as furnis.h.i.+ng us with the necessary data to solve the problem of the origin of the British fauna.

Meanwhile we know enough to enable us to a.s.sert positively that the latter has reached us by land-connections from various parts of Europe (cf. p. 35). This statement of course refers to the bulk of the British fauna. The small proportion of indigenous species, or such as have been introduced accidentally, may be left out of consideration when dealing with the great ma.s.s of animals which have evidently migrated to the British Islands on land now sunk beneath the sea (see Fig. 4, p. 60).

Opinions of zoologists, botanists, and geologists are practically unanimous on this subject; yet there are two other theories, which have from time to time been advanced to account for the origin of the British fauna. Only the first of these, however, can claim the serious attention of those interested in the problem. Its chief contention lies in the oft-a.s.serted dictum of the "_imperfection of geological record_." It has been suggested, in fact, that the British fauna, instead of having migrated to our islands, might have originated there, but that, owing to the fragmentary nature of our Tertiary deposits, all trace of their early history had disappeared. "The origin of European species," remarks Professor Cole (p. 238), "within the area of the British Isles, and their migration outwards when local conditions became less favourable for their multiplication, are possibilities that seem too often disregarded. Yet the geologist must see in the western borderland of modern Europe a diminished continent from which land-animals must have again and again moved eastward." "Hence geologists may fairly be unwilling to look on our isles as barren lands waiting to be peopled in pliocene or later times. Far rather has the breaking up of a broad land-area along the present continental edge sent our land-fauna to the new steppes that opened eastward, leaving us a mere diminished remnant to struggle with the glacial period."

There are in Professor Cole's views many points with which I readily agree. In the first place, he acknowledges that migration has taken place on land, so that we have our land-connection between Great Britain and the Continent whatever theory we accept as to the direction taken by the migrants. That the western borderland of Europe has given rise to many important a.s.semblages of animals in past times, seems to me also exceedingly probable, nor do I look upon the British Islands as "barren lands waiting to be peopled in pliocene or later times." On the contrary, I believe an almost uninterrupted stream of migrants poured into the British Isles before pliocene times from the south. But what I thoroughly disagree with, is the remark that our British land-fauna has been sent to the new steppes that opened eastward. These are the more or less arid portions of Eastern Europe. Professor Cole no doubt has in mind those species of mammals which I have included in what I called the Siberian migration, and of which we have fossil evidence in the late Tertiary deposits of Europe. It would be impossible here to discuss this subject fully, especially as I have done so in the subsequent chapters; but, even if we had no geological record whatsoever, the present range of the species in question and their nearest relatives must convince us that they could not have originated in Western Europe. However, on the strength of the geological evidence, Professor Nehring--the only one who has made this fauna his special study--remarks (p. 228), that there seems scarcely any doubt that this steppe-fauna just referred to had come to us from the east. Professors Boyd Dawkins, Brandt, and Lartet held similar views.

The theory that an ice-sheet stretched across a narrow sea might be the means of aiding a fauna across from the mainland to an island, is particularly inapplicable to the British Islands. Neither Mr. Kinahan nor Mr. Lamplugh, the two supporters of this view, have, however, taken the trouble to apply it to more than one species of the British fauna.

An ice-bridge, thinks Mr. Kinahan, "could easily have connected Scotland and Ireland, thus giving a land causeway for migration" (p. 3). Mr.

Lamplugh throws more light on this interesting speculation by giving us the name of an animal which he believes crossed a narrow sea on a bridge of ice. This animal unfortunately happens to be one whose remains have never been found in high northern lat.i.tudes, viz., the Irish elk (_Cervus giganteus_). And because he is of opinion that this species of extinct deer found its way to the Isle of Man from the mainland on a waning ice-sheet, he sees no reason why certain elements of the Irish fauna should not have been similarly introduced.

It seems of no advantage to begin the discussion on the origin of the British fauna by a.s.suming the former existence of ice-bridges, and the possibility of a migration across them of some of its members. If a glacier connected Scotland and Ireland, the climate of both countries (since they were highlands and acted as the feeders of the ice-sheet) must have been uncomfortable to the majority of the British species.

What were the inducements that could have prompted those which had braved the discomforts of Scotland to emigrate to Ireland at such a time? What light does it throw on the origin of the Irish fauna as a whole, to advance the extremely improbable hypothesis that certain elements of it may have reached Ireland by an ice-bridge? If any species came to that country in such an unusual manner, surely they must have been Arctic or northern forms. But what about the southern species, which form the bulk of the Irish fauna and also the flora? Even the Arctic element of the British fauna, which probably includes, besides the Reindeer, many hundreds of species, could not, I think, have migrated to these islands on an ice-bridge. Indeed, I agree with most of the writers who have dealt with the subject, in a.s.serting that the northern as well as all the other elements of our fauna utilised for their migration the old land-bridges which connected these islands with one another and with the Continent.

There is a greater diversity of opinion as to the age during which the British fauna arrived in these islands. This is naturally a much more complicated problem, but it is one which I am convinced will ultimately be solved mainly by means of a study of the geographical distribution of animals and plants. If we can settle the relative ages of the various migrations, we thereby supply an important link in our attempt to reconstruct the past geographical features of the British Islands. The range of the British species will give us an idea of the nature of the land-connections and their gradual changes in course of time. Geological data are exceedingly valuable in these inquiries, but it is a fatal mistake to build our geographical theories and the origin of the British fauna as a whole entirely on the a.s.sumptions of a certain school of geologists. Unfortunately, Dr. White's very interesting remarks on the British fauna for this reason lose much of the value which they might otherwise possess.

In his remarkable essay the late Edward Forbes affirms that the flora peculiar to the west of Ireland, of which the strawberry tree (_Arbutus unedo_) is the most striking example, and which exhibits such strong southern affinities, is not only much the most ancient of our island floras, but that it is actually of miocene age. It migrated to Ireland from Spain at a very remote period, during which he supposed that a direct land-connection existed between the two countries. The destruction of this old land-bridge, he thinks, must have taken place before the commencement of the Glacial period. Climatal changes during that time destroyed the ma.s.s of the southern flora which had thus reached Ireland, the survivors being species such as were most hardy (saxifrages, heaths, etc.), which he considers to be the only relics of this most ancient portion of our flora.

The northern or Arctic fauna and flora, according to the same author, established themselves in the British Isles during the Glacial period--at a time when these were groups of islands in the midst of an ice-bound sea. Finally, the great ma.s.s of our animals and plants migrated from the Continent to England after the Glacial period. "The migration of the species," he says, "less speedy of diffusion, which are now peculiar to England was arrested by the breaking up of the land-connection between England and Ireland, and thence the famous deficiencies of the sister isle, as, for instance, its freedom from reptiles" (p. 10). He is also of opinion, that the separation between England and the Continent took place at a later date than that between England and Ireland.

According to Dr. A. R. Wallace (p. 338), we possessed just before and during the Glacial period "a fauna almost or quite identical with that of adjacent parts of the Continent, and equally rich in species." But the submersion, he thinks, which is supposed to have occurred during the latter part of the Glacial period, destroyed the greater part of the life of our country. When England again became continental, continues Dr. Wallace, this fauna was succeeded by an a.s.semblage of animals from Central Europe. "But sufficient time does not seem to have elapsed for the migration to have been completed before subsidence again occurred, cutting off the further influx of purely terrestrial animals, and leaving us without the number of species which our favourable climate and varied surface ent.i.tle us to." The comparative zoological poverty of Ireland he attributes to the fact that "the depth of the Irish Sea being somewhat greater than that of the German Ocean, the connecting land would there probably be of small extent and of less duration, thus offering an additional barrier to migration."

Dr. Wallace's explanation of the origin of the British fauna is disappointing after Forbes's careful study and critical inquiry into its component elements. So great an authority on geographical distribution might have given us more lucid statements of his views on a variety of topics connected with this subject.

In speaking of the fauna of Ireland, Professor Leith Adams, Professor Dawkins, and Mr. Alston are evidently only thinking of the mammals, which form but a very small proportion of it. The first-mentioned palaeontologist held that there was a land-communication between Scotland and Ireland at the close of the Glacial period, by which the greater portion of the mammals that had found their way to the former country crossed to the latter (p. 100). And, he continues, the severance between the two countries must have taken place before the slow-travelling Mole, the Beaver, the forest-haunting Elk and the Roebuck had time to arrive.

Much in the same spirit are Mr. Alston's remarks on this subject (p. 5).

"The absence from the known fossil fauna of Scotland and Ireland of most of the characteristic post-pliocene English animals, shows that the northward migration of these forms was slow, gradually advancing as the glacial conditions of the northern parts of our islands decreased in intensity. Thus it is not difficult to suppose that the Hedgehog, Ermine, Badger, Squirrel, and Mountain Hare may have found their way through southern Scotland into Ireland long before they were able to penetrate into the still sub-arctic regions of the Highlands.

Subsequently, when the improvement of the climate had continued, the Shrews and Voles may well have found their way northward along the comparatively genial coasts, before the larger beasts of prey could find a sufficient stock of game."

That the Bear, Wolf, Stag, Horse, Mammoth, and Reindeer lived in Ireland before the Glacial period is considered highly probable by Professor Boyd Dawkins (_a_, p. 152).

Only the b.u.t.terflies are dealt with in Dr. Buchanan White's clever little essay on distribution. And, as I remarked before, his conclusions are somewhat marred by the unwarrantable a.s.sumption that our islands at no distant date were totally dest.i.tute of all plant-life, and were therefore uninhabitable by animals. But his paper differs in so far from most of the others, that he has made a thorough study of the one group he deals with. In some respects it may serve as a model to future students in its general treatment of the problem he has set himself to work out. He adopts the principle, even for b.u.t.terflies, that though it is possible for them to be blown over from the Continent, they have probably migrated with the rest of our indigenous fauna and flora across the dry bed of the German Ocean. His conclusions are that Britain derived its b.u.t.terfly fauna from continental Europe in post-glacial times, that the Arctic and Alpine species were the first arrivals, and that one part of the Irish species reached Ireland by way of Scotland, another from the south. He a.s.sumes, of course, that Great Britain and Ireland were connected at that time.

Within the last few years the spell which has bound naturalists to accept the theory of a total destruction of life during the Glacial period is happily vanis.h.i.+ng, and more enlightened views are gaining ground. The Lusitanian species of plants in the west of Ireland, which had already furnished Forbes with an argument in favour of survival, are also regarded by Mr. Bulman as the remnants of a pre-glacial flora which was exterminated everywhere else by the cold (p. 265). This view of the survival of a pre-glacial fauna and flora has since been accepted by Mr.

Carpenter, whilst I also have endeavoured to bring fresh evidence into the field in its favour. We both agree with Edward Forbes in considering the Lusitanian element as the oldest section of our fauna and flora, and that it came long before the Glacial period. But we differ somewhat from him, in so far as we do not limit that element to Ireland. It seems also to be represented in South-western England and Wales, though it is there less conspicuous.

This decision as to the relative age of the British South-western fauna has not been arrived at from any geological considerations. The conviction that it must be older than the other sections has been gained solely from a study of the geographical distribution of the species belonging to that fauna. Many of them exhibit what is known as "discontinuous distribution," which zoologists are agreed to regard as a sign of antiquity. Thus _Geomalacus maculosus_, the Kerry Slug, is in the British Islands confined to South-western Ireland (see Fig. 19, p.

300), and on the Continent it is unknown north of North-western Spain.

The Millipede, _Polydesmus gallicus_, has a wider range in Ireland, and is also known from France and the Azores. Two Earthworms of the Spanish and Mediterranean region, viz., _Allolobophora veneta_ and _Georgii_, have been discovered in Ireland, but are apparently unknown in England or France; whilst the Weevil, _Otiorrhynchus auropunctatus_, does not occur north of the Auvergne Mountains in France except in Ireland. A very large number of instances might be mentioned of species found in South-western Europe, France, the South-west of England and Ireland.

Enough, however, has been said to show the nature of the fauna, and there is, as Forbes has pointed out, a corresponding flora.

A great number of the species belonging to the South-western British element seem to have originated in South-western Europe, or at any rate to have spread over our continent from that part. Their home lay therefore probably in a warm, damp climate, and it seems a reasonable inference to suppose that they spread north at a time when the temperature over the British Islands was much higher than what it is now. Any one familiar with our Bristle fern, or Killarney fern, as it is called in Ireland (_Trichomanes radicans_), will readily admit that it must have come to us at such an epoch. It at once suggests some shady waterfall in a tropical forest, and indeed the home of the genus is South America. It is one of those plants which have evidently migrated to us from South-western Europe, a mere remnant of a once luxuriant flora.

Sir Archibald Geikie tells us (p. 837), and in the main every one agrees with him, that at the beginning of the Tertiary era in which we now live, the climate was of a tropical and subtropical character in Europe.

Gradually it became more temperate, and eventually it pa.s.sed into a phase of extreme cold, but since that time the cold has again gradually diminished. It is quite evident, therefore, that from a purely geological point of view our south-western flora must have migrated northward before the cold came on, and survived in sheltered localities under the influence of the mild coast climate. Some, however, suppose that there occurred a phase of extreme mildness immediately after the Glacial period, and that it was during that time that the Lusitanian fauna and flora became established in the British Islands. To this Professor James Geikie replies (_b_, p. 169), "there are few points we can be more sure of than this, that since the close of the Glacial epoch--since the deposition of the clays with Arctic sh.e.l.ls and the Saxicava sands--there have been no great oscillations, but only a gradual amelioration of climate. It is quite impossible to believe that any warm period could have intervened between the last Arctic and the present temperate conditions without leaving some notable evidence in the superficial deposits of Scotland, Scandinavia, and North America."

Thus it appears that on the whole the a.s.sumption that the Lusitanian fauna and flora are very ancient and pre-glacial is also supported on geological evidence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 5.--Map of Europe, with arrows indicating approximately the course taken by the different streams of migration towards the British Islands.]

The course of events in the origin of the British fauna might have been therefore somewhat as follows:--In early Tertiary times, when the climate all over Western Europe was moist and semi-tropical, a migration proceeded northward from the south-western corner of Europe. This was strengthened by Oriental migrants which had moved westward along the Mediterranean basin (Fig. 5, No. 1). Owing to geographical changes supervening, the Alpine fauna (No. 2) was then enabled to colonise the British Islands, and subsequently another migration had begun to come in from the south-east (No. 3). The climate had meanwhile gradually become more temperate and drier. About the same time, or even earlier, an Arctic migration commenced to pa.s.s southward (No. 4), and finally the Siberian animals (No. 5) poured into our continent. The arrows in the map indicate the directions followed by the different migrants as they travelled to the British Islands. The arrows are not meant to represent the whole nor the full extent of the migrations from any particular centre, but only in so far as they affect our islands. Moreover, it would be impossible to indicate on one map the geographical conditions which obtained during the several migrations. It must be remembered that during the time which elapsed while they pa.s.sed into the British Islands, these were joined in the north to Scandinavia and in the south to Belgium and France. The various phases of geographical evolution of Europe will be studied in the subsequent chapters, and maps will then be given to show as far as possible in a general way the leading characteristics of these great changes.

I have now given some reasons for the belief that several different migrations of animals entered the British Islands in later Tertiary times. I have also shown why some of them must be looked upon as being older than others, and in so far we have come to a decision as to their relative ages. It still remains for us, however, to examine how their geological ages can be approximately determined. We require for this purpose palaeontological aid.

In the fifth chapter will be found the history of the Siberian migration. And since we possess most valuable records of it in the numerous fossil remains discovered in Central and Western Europe, we are able to trace their progress from the east to the west in a very complete and satisfactory manner. In England their first appearance dates from the Forest-Bed, for here we find remains of the Glutton (_Gulo luscus_), Musk-Ox (_Ovibos moschatus_), and others (see p. 204).

It seems reasonable to suppose, therefore, that the first entry of these Siberian mammals into Europe took place at or just before the Forest-Bed period. But Professor Nehring tells us in his remarkable work on the Tundra and Steppes (p. 222), that in Germany the remains of the same mammals occur in deposits which are certainly more recent than the lower continental boulder clay; and he is inclined to the belief that they migrated into Europe during the inter-glacial phase which is supposed to have separated the earlier from the later stage of the Glacial period.

It is evident that in this case the inter-glacial period in Germany would have corresponded to, and be contemporaneous with, our Forest-Bed period. The deposits immediately preceding the Forest-Bed would also be contemporaneous with the lower continental boulder clay. Although this may seem rather a startling statement to make, from the evidence which will be brought forward in the fourth and fifth chapters I am inclined to the belief that such is probably the case.

Having once arrived at a determination of the exact geological period during which the Siberian mammals invaded our continent, and having also previously determined the relative ages of the various other migrations, we have advanced another step in the direction we are aiming at. Let us suppose that the Siberian migration actually reached the British Islands during the Forest-Bed period. Since the Siberian migration is the most recent of those which entered the British Islands, the others must have commenced their march before the Forest-Bed period. Now it was Professor Boyd Dawkins who first indicated to us, as I have remarked before, the method of research to be adopted in an attempt to determine the geological age of the different migrations in so far as they affected the British Islands. I may be excused, therefore, for again quoting the following important pa.s.sage in one of his works. "The absence," he says (_b_, p. xxix), "of the beaver and the dormouse from Ireland must be due to the existence of some barrier to their westward migration from the adjacent mainland, and the fact that the Alpine hare is indigenous, while the common hare is absent, implies that, so far as relates to the former animal, the barrier did not exist." The Beaver, Dormouse, and Common Hare are either Siberians or later migrants from elsewhere, and there can be no doubt that at the Forest-Bed period Ireland was already, or was just being, separated from England. All the southern species, that is to say all the Lusitanian, Alpine, and Oriental forms occurring in Ireland, must therefore be older than that period. I have advocated similar views in a former essay on this subject. Mr. Carpenter recently advanced some interesting and valuable criticisms on these views, which we may examine a little more closely (p. 385). "While, then," he remarks, "I find myself in almost complete agreement with Dr. Scharff with regard to the older sections of our fauna, I think that those widespread species which survived the Glacial period must have been confined to the more southern parts of our area, and have only subsequently spread northwards and westwards to Scotland and Ireland."

He suggests, in fact, that the widespread British species belong to a younger or newer section of our fauna than the local ones. In many cases this may be quite true, but we possess also a large number of common and widely-spread forms which bear the impress of antiquity upon them. We have the most positive proof of the antiquity of the very common small circular Snail (_Helix rotundata_), since it was found in miocene freshwater deposits near Bordeaux. Many other examples might be mentioned to show that, though discontinuous range is generally a proof of antiquity, continuous range is not always a sign of the opposite.

Some species, in fact, appear to be short-lived and disinclined to spread, whilst others multiply rapidly even under a change of temperature and climate, and are to be found almost everywhere. But even if we supposed, with Mr. Carpenter, that these widely-ranging species must have been confined during the Glacial period to the more southern parts of England, the idea that they afterwards made their way northwards along the eastern sh.o.r.e of the Irish Sea and then pa.s.sed into Ireland, does not appeal to me. Southern England was occupied at that very same time by an a.s.semblage of Siberian mammals. Mr. Carpenter thinks these might have been kept out of Ireland by an arm of the sea until the land-connection with North-western England had broken down.

But if an arm of the sea could keep out the Siberian mammals it would also keep out the widely-spread British species of the general fauna. On the other hand, I quite admit that my view of the survival in Ireland of the pre-glacial fauna is somewhat difficult to accept, considering that we have such undoubted evidence of a very extensive submergence.

The case of Isle of Man, quoted by Mr. Carpenter, can be met, I think, by the supposition that it was connected with c.u.mberland until quite recently, and quite independently of any connection between England and Ireland; that the Isle of Man, in fact, was always a cape or peninsula of the mainland, and only recently became separated by local subsidences or by the action of the sea.

Part of the history of the British fauna will be referred to again in the next chapter, which deals with the Arctic migration. We need not therefore dwell any longer on this subject here. There is one matter, however, which is of importance in connection with the geographical conditions of the British Islands at the time when the greater portion of our fauna arrived from abroad.

On page 60 will be found a map indicating the physical geography of that part of the ancient continent on which what are now the British Islands were situated. Only one large river has been marked on that map, namely, that flowing out of a lake which occupied part of the Irish Sea. Another probably discharged its waters into the Atlantic midway between France and England, whilst the Thames may have been a tributary of the Rhine, as it emptied itself into the sea near our south-east coast. I have shown in a previous essay that the former presence of a freshwater lake between England and Ireland is indicated by the distribution of the Charrs and also by the various species of British Coregonus. There are three British species of Coregonus, viz., _C. clupeoides_, _C.

vandesius_, and _C. pollan_. These are confined to the lakes of North Wales, North-western England, South-western Scotland, and Ireland. All but the latter communicate at present directly with the Irish Sea. The lakes of the latter country, however, must have done so at a time when the west of Ireland stood at a higher level than it does now. The ancestors of the three Coregonus species, and also those of the Charrs, then lived in the large freshwater lake indicated on the map (p. 60), and when the sea gradually crept up the river valley and finally converted the lake into a gulf, the freshwater fish took refuge in the rivers which supplied it with water.

Now as for the continuous sea-sh.o.r.e between the coast of Brittany and the south-west of Ireland, zoological distribution again aids us in proving that such must have actually existed at no very distant geological date. Most of our common sh.o.r.e forms of life migrate along the coast exactly as land animals do--step by step. Their eggs are carefully attached to fixed objects, so as not to be carried away by the waves, whilst the young often remain and grow old in some particular little pool, rarely venturing farther than a few yards from the spot where they first saw the light of day. A number of such sh.o.r.e forms are found on the west coast of France, the same species recurring again on the south-west coasts of England and Ireland, thus clearly indicating a former continuity of coast-line between these points, now separated by deep sea. A very familiar example to British zoologists is the purple rock-boring Sea-urchin (_Strongylocentrotus lividus_), but there are a great many others, such as the semi-marine Beetles _Octhebius Lejolisii_ and _aepophilus Bonnairei_, the Crustaceans _Achaeus Cranchii_, _Inachus leptochirus_, _Gonoplax angulata_, _Thia a.s.sidua_, _Calliana.s.sa subterranea_, the Fishes _Blennius galerita_ and _Lepadogaster Decandollii_, and the Molluscs _Otina otis_, _Donax politus_, and _Amphidesma castaneum_.

Before concluding this chapter, a few words as to my views on the conditions prevailing during the Glacial period will not be out of place. They do not differ very much from those held formerly by most geologists; and even at present there are, as I have mentioned before, a few upholders of those older views.

The sea, I think, must have gradually crept across England from the east during, or shortly after, the Forest-Bed period, so as to separate the south from the north, whilst Ireland and Scotland were then still connected with one another. At a later stage, the sea also partially invaded Ireland, and this condition is very roughly represented on the accompanying map. Mr. Kendall kindly drew my attention to the fact that several notable areas on which sh.e.l.ly drift has been observed are here placed upon the land; but it must be remembered that one stage only can be shown on the map, and that the sea covered more ground a little later. Many of the smaller islands in the glacial sea, too, are not shown. The map, in fact, is merely meant to give a general idea of the manner in which the great northern sea moved westward and slowly covered a large portion of the British Islands. These peculiar geographical conditions explain, I think, better than anything, the absence from parts of the Midlands and the north of England of such a number of terrestrial invertebrates which are otherwise widely distributed over the British Islands. In spite of the fact that a large portion of the British Islands became submerged, we possessed at that time an extensive area which has since been claimed by the sea, so that there was ample room for the present fauna to survive the Glacial period. The climate during this period was probably much the same as it is at present, though moister, with cooler summers and milder winters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 6.--Map of the British Islands, showing approximately in what manner the sea may have invaded the country from the east during, or shortly after, the Forest-Bed period. The darkly shaded parts indicate the areas covered by water, and the lightly shaded and white portions what was land at that time.]

It may be asked what proof we have of such an extensive submergence of England and Ireland. My own views are princ.i.p.ally based on the general distribution of the fauna in the British Islands, and the belief that nothing but a mild climate during the Glacial period could have brought it about. On purely geological grounds, however, some geologists, notably Mr. Mellard Reade, have come to a similar conclusion. "The whole of Lancas.h.i.+re and Ches.h.i.+re," he remarks (_a_, p. 542), "from sea-level up to about 400 feet, and in places 600 feet, is covered by a continuous mantle of boulder-clay and sands." "These clays, as a rule, contain distributed through them, in a greater or less degree, fragments of sh.e.l.ls and some perfect ones. I myself have recorded forty-four species." Again he continues (pp. 545 and 546): "A large part of Ayrs.h.i.+re is covered with similar sh.e.l.ly boulder-clays from sea-level to 1061 feet at Dippal. These Ayrs.h.i.+re high-level sh.e.l.ls have, in the majority of cases, been taken, not from sand and gravel beds, but from boulder-clay, and in that respect they are most important and unique. In Moel Tryfan the sh.e.l.ls are found in sands and gravels at 982 feet; on the range of hills from Miaera to Llangollen from 1000-1200 feet; also in sands and gravels at Gloppa, near Oswestry, at 1100-1200 feet; and near Macclesfield at a level of about 1200 feet. In Ireland marine sh.e.l.ls can be traced almost from sea-level to a height of over 1000 feet."

"Again," continues the same author, "if we look broadly at the distribution of these sh.e.l.ly deposits, we find that they occur all round our maritime coasts in Lancas.h.i.+re, Ches.h.i.+re, and Wales, in c.u.mberland and Westmoreland, Wigtons.h.i.+re and Ayrs.h.i.+re, and along the eastern coast of Ireland. The same is to be said of the eastern coasts of England and Scotland."

That a very considerable change of sea-level has taken place in some parts of the British Islands would appear to a zoologist the most logical conclusion after an examination of these "high-level sh.e.l.ly sands and gravels," but the sh.e.l.ls contained in them are now generally supposed to have been carried there frozen in the sole of a glacier or pushed up in front of it. The older view, however, which agrees so much better with the facts of distribution, fortunately has not disappeared among geologists. "When we call up," says Mr. Mellard Reade (_b_, p.

435), "before our mental vision the simple and well-known facts of nature which suffice to explain the marine drifts on the theory of submergence, it seems unnecessary to resort to the ingenious and artificial system of physics elaborated to explain the phenomena of land-ice."

"When we have more knowledge of the glaciers of the Arctic Regions, and facts, in place of ingenious suppositions, to base our reasoning upon, we may possibly have to revise all our glacial conceptions. In the meantime, the submergence theory of the origin of high-level sh.e.l.ly gravels and sands seems to me by far the simpler of the two theories, and the most consistent with the facts and phenomena which the labours of a succession of enthusiastic geologists have made us acquainted with."

Among those geologists, and they form the majority, who hold that Ireland was covered by land-ice, there is a great diversity of opinion as to its extent. Messrs. Close, Kinahan, J. Geikie, and others believe that the ice covered practically everything, whilst others who claim to have examined the ground with equal care, such as Professor Carvill Lewis, were led to believe that the south of Ireland, with the exception of a few local glaciers, was free from ice. The glacial phenomena of the country can therefore be interpreted in different ways, even by those who are convinced that they are due to land-ice and not to icebergs or mud-glaciers.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER III.

The history of the British fauna is not only of interest to us from a sentimental point of view, it is a convenient starting-point in the study of the larger European problem. The fauna, broadly speaking, is composed of three foreign elements, viz., the northern, eastern, and southern, to which may be added a small endemic one. Examples are given of the more noteworthy forms belonging to each of these. This leads us to the subject of the natural divisions of the British Islands according to their animal inhabitants. Zoologists attempted at first to subdivide these countries, on the lines laid down by botanists, into a large number of provinces. Forbes proposed ten such divisions for mollusca, and subsequently five, which were ultimately reduced by others to two or three.

The opinions of biologists are almost unanimous in attributing the bulk of the British fauna and flora to migrations by land from the Continent, but two other theories, viz., those of Professor Cole and Messrs.

Kinahan and Lamplugh, are also referred to. The first believes in a possible migration eastward from Western Europe, and the latter support the view of the former existence of ice-bridges to a.s.sist the fauna in their migrations.