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Fig. 56. Restoration of the geography of western Europe during the Third Interglacial Stage, showing the ancient land areas (dots) and the ancient river channels now submerged by the sea. Modified after Avebury's Prehistoric Times by permission of Henry Holt & Co. The six white crosses (X) indicate the location of the principal Pre-Chellean stations of Piltdown on the Ouse, and Gray's Thurrock on the Thames, in England; of Abbeville, on the north bank, and St. Acheul, on the south bank of the Somme, and Chelles on the Marne, in France; and of Helin in Belgium. It will be observed that the English stations are separated from the others only by the ancient broad valley corresponding with the present English Channel.

Secular Changes of Climate in Lower Palæolithic Times

We find evidences of four climatic and life phases during the long period of Lower Palæolithic evolution, as follows:

4. Cold Moist Climate.—Advent of the fourth glaciation. Arrival of the 'full Mousterian' culture and of the Neanderthal race in Belgium and France. Repair of men to the warmer shelters, grottos, and entrances to the caverns. Final disappearance of the hardy Merck's rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant. Arrival of the tundra fauna, the reindeer, the woolly mammoth, and the woolly rhinoceros. Refrigeration of western Europe as far south as northern Spain and Italy. Wide distribution of cold alpine, tundra, and steppe mammals all over Germany and France, and into northern Spain. Cold tundra flora in the Thames valley, and at Hoxne, in Suffolk. Migration of the tundra mammals, the reindeer, mammoth, and rhinoceros all over southern Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, and Austria.

3. Arid Climate in Western Europe.—Period of the close of the Acheulean culture; some of the flint workers seeking the shelter of cliffs and approaching the entrances to the grottos during the cold season of the year. A dry steppe climate, prevailing westerly winds, and deposits of 'loess' all over northern France and Germany. Appearance of the first Neanderthaloid men in Krapina, Croatia. Cool forest flora in the region of La Celle-sous-Moret near Paris, followed by depositions of 'loess' and increasingly cool and arid climate. Early Mousterian industry. Disappearance first of the more sensitive pair of Asiatic mammals, the hippopotamus and the southern mammoth (E. trogontherii); persistence of the more hardy, straight-tusked elephant (E. antiquus) and the broad-nosed rhinoceros (D. merckii).

2. Continued Warm Temperate Period.—Time of the Chellean culture found at Chelles, St. Acheul, Gray's Thurrock, Ilford, Essex, and southward in Torralba, Spain. Abundance of hippopotami, rhinoceroses, southern mammoths, and straight-tusked elephants in northern Germany at Taubach, Weimar, Ehringsdorf, and Achenheim. Rare appearance of sabre-tooth tigers. Temperate forest and alpine flora of Dürnten and Utznach, Switzerland. Early Acheulean culture widely distributed over all of western Europe.

1. Early Warm Temperate Period.—The warm climate of the Pre-Chellean culture period, as seen in the valleys of the Somme, of the Thames, and of the Seine near Paris, favorable to the southern mammoth and the hippopotamus. Apparent survival of the sabre-tooth tiger and the Etruscan rhinoceros in favored regions. A warm temperate forest flora in La Cellesous-Moret near Paris and in Lorraine. Arrival of the Pre-Chellean flint workers and of the Piltdown race in southern England.

It is believed that the climate of Third Interglacial times when it reached its maximum warmth was again somewhat milder than the present climate in the same region. In the Alps the glaciers and the snow-line retreated once more to their present levels. The period opened with humid continental conditions. The areas left bare by the ice were gradually reforested. A picture of the climate in this warm period is presented in the region near Paris in the so-called tuf de La Celle-sous-Moret (Seine-et-Marne). This tufa, which is a hot-springs deposit, overlies river-gravels of Pleistocene age.[(7)] The lower levels of the tufa contain the sycamore-maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), willows, and the Austrian pine, indicating a temperate climate. Higher up in the same deposits we find evidences of increasingly mild temperatures in the presence of the box (Buxus) and not infrequently of the fig-tree; the Canary laurel (Laurus nobilis) is somewhat rarer and both it and the fig indicate that the winters were mild, because these plants have the peculiarity of flowering during the winter season; we infer, therefore, that the climate was somewhat milder and more damp than it is in the same region at the present time. The mollusks also indicate greater equability of climate. These deposits are believed to correspond with the period of Chellean and early Acheulean industry.