SUMMARY OF CHAPTER II.

I have endeavoured to show in this chapter how we can determine approximately the original home of an animal. By this means we are able to study the component elements of the European fauna, which is found to consist to a large extent of migrants from the neighbouring continents. There is a Siberian, an Oriental, and an Arctic element in it. The remainder of the fauna is derived from local centres of dispersal. What was formerly believed to have been one great northern migration now resolves itself, on closer study, into two very distinct ones—the Siberian and the Arctic. The mammals have received most attention hitherto, because their remains are so frequently met with, thus enabling us more easily to investigate their past history; but butterflies and snails have not been neglected, and at least one very remarkable work on the latter has been published dealing with their origin in Europe and in the remainder of the Palæarctic region.

The former distribution of land and water is intimately connected with the origin of the European fauna, and the changes which have taken place in this respect may be best traced by the present distribution of mammals, snails, and earthworms. In this manner the British Islands may be shown to have been connected with one another and with the Continent; Spain with Morocco across the Straits of Gibraltar; Greece with Asia Minor, and so forth.

The British fauna has played such an important part in the evolution of the European fauna, that it forms the key to the solution of the wider problem. In it five elements are recognisable, of which the Lusitanian element is the oldest, and the Siberian the most recent. It has been deemed advisable to conclude this chapter with a short review of the history of the Glacial period in its climatic effects on the animals and plants of Europe. A number of writers are quoted who have conducted special researches in determining the temperature of our continent at the time. The fauna of Europe is frequently described as having been of an Arctic nature, but as a matter of fact there existed during the Ice Age a striking and most remarkable mingling of a northern and a southern fauna. The presence of Siberian mammals in Europe is said to have been due to the prevalence of a dry steppe climate, but this view is not supported by other evidence. The Alpine flora in a wide sense is probably pre-glacial in origin, and appears to have survived the Ice Age where it is now known to exist. A few words on the phenomena of glaciation are added before bringing the chapter to a close.