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V.—On Changes of Climate during the Glacial Epoch

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

James Geikie
Affiliation:
District Surveyor of the Geological Survey of Scotland

Extract

The older valley-gravels and cave-deposits of England contain, as every geologist knows, a remarkable intermingling of northern and southern forms of animal life. To account for this anomaly various theories have been advanced. There are few who do not admit, to begin with, that species such as the hippopotamus and the musk-sheep could not have lived side by side throughout the year in the same country. The conditions necessary for the support of the one would be fatal to the other. Some writers, therefore, have inferred that the occurrence of the remains of both these creatures in our superficial deposits points to former fluctuations of climate during the accumulation of these beds; while others hold that it only indicates a period of strongly contrasted summers and winters.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1872

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References

page 165 note 1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxv., p. 192. Mr. Dawkins has further explained and illustrated his views in a paper, “On Pleistocene Climate and the Relation of the Pleistocene Mammalia to the Glacial Period.”—Popular Science Review for October, 1871.

page 168 note 1 Sir Charles Lyell says (1863) geologists may freely speculate on the time when the hippopotamus “may have swum in a few summer days from rivers in the south of Spain or France to the Somme, Thames, or Severn, making timely retreat to the south before the snow and ice set in.” But, according to this theory, the natations and peregrinations of our old river-horse must have extended even further north than the Thames, as certain valley gravels at Leeds bear witness. In the discussion above I have not referred to the evidence of a mild condition of things afforded by the presence of Cyrena fluminalis and Unio littoralis. If the evidence of these shells is to be trusted, however, it would furnish an additional reason why we should reject the “migration” theory, and maintain, as the more probable hypothesis, the alternative explanation suggested by Lyell, “that when the temperature of the river water was congenial to the Cyrena above mentioned, it was also suited to the hippopotamus.” (Principles, 10th edit., vol. i., p. 194.)

page 169 note 1 As I am writing for geologists, it is hardly necessary that I should remind them that this is the view Sir Charles Lyell inclines to hold (Principles, vol. i., p. 192). Sir John Lubbock, in his well-known work, is of the same opinion (Prehist. Times, p. 301).

page 170 note 1 Remains of the Irish deer and the horse were obtained in the inter-glacial beds at Crofthead, which yielded the skull of urus. Besides these fossils there were other fragments of bone, which my friend, Professor Young, has under examination.