Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/65

 

CHAPTER III.

BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL CHANGES IN BRITAIN BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF MAN.—THE MEIOCENE PERIOD.

The Meiocene Classification.—Genera of Meiocene Mammalia now living.—The Southern Seaboard.—Continuity with North America,—The Mountains.—Meiocene Volcanoes in British Islands.—The Meiocene Rivers.—The British Meiocene Forests.—Meiocene Flora of the Hebrides and Ireland.—Meiocene Flora on the Continent.—Lower Meiocene Mammals.—Lower Meiocene Birds.—Mammals inhabiting Forests of the Mid Meiocene Age.—Land Mammalia and Birds of Upper Meiocenes.—Meiocene Geography on the Continent.—The Meiocene Climate.—No Evidence of Glacial Period in the Meiocene Age.—No Proof of Man in Europe in the Meiocene Age.

We have, in the course of this chapter, to seek for evidence of man in the Meiocene life period, when the living genera of mammals first begin to appear. It must be admitted that the strict definition of the Meiocene from the Eocene period is one of exceeding difficulty from the imperfect preservation of the fossils, and from the impossibility of ascertaining the exact relative age of assemblies of animals found in isolated lake basins and in river deposits widely remote from each other. The only clue to their geological date is the stage of evolution presented by the mammalia, the more general having obviously preceded in point of time the more special forms.