Page:Submerged forests (1913).djvu/56

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42
SUBMERGED FORESTS
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The species found were:—

Ursus (bear)

Canis lupus (wolf)

Hyaena spelaea (hyaena)

Cervus megaceros (Irish elk)

tarandus (reindeer)

elaphus (red-deer)

a fourth species

Bos primigenius (wild ox)

Bison priscus (bison)

Equus caballus (horse)

Rhinoceros tichorhinus (woolly rhinoceros)

Elephas primigenius (mammoth)

Castor fiber (beaver)

Trichechus rosmarus (walrus)

Though mammalian bones are now so seldom found, whenever the sand-banks shift slightly, as they tend to do under the influence of tides and currents, the edges of the submerged plateau are laid bare, exposing submarine ledges of moorlog, which still yield a continuous supply of this material. Messrs. Whitehead and Goodchild have recently published an excellent account of it, having obtained from the trawlers numerous slabs of the peculiar peaty deposit, with particulars as to the latitude and longitude in which the specimens were dredged. Mrs Reid and I have to thank the authors for an opportunity of examining samples of the material, which has yielded most interesting evidence as to the physical history, botany, and climatic conditions of this sunken land. The following account is mainly taken from their paper and our appendix to it.

We are still without information as to the exact positions of the submarine ledges and cliffs of peat from which the masses have been torn; but there