[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Map of Europe, with arrows indicating approximately the course taken by the different streams of migration towards the British Islands.]
The course of events in the origin of the British fauna might have been therefore somewhat as follows:--In early Tertiary times, when the climate all over Western Europe was moist and semi-tropical, a migration proceeded northward from the south-western corner of Europe. This was strengthened by Oriental migrants which had moved westward along the Mediterranean basin (Fig. 5, No. 1). Owing to geographical changes supervening, the Alpine fauna (No. 2) was then enabled to colonise the British Islands, and subsequently another migration had begun to come in from the south-east (No. 3). The climate had meanwhile gradually become more temperate and drier. About the same time, or even earlier, an Arctic migration commenced to pass southward (No. 4), and finally the Siberian animals (No. 5) poured into our continent. The arrows in the map indicate the directions followed by the different migrants as they travelled to the British Islands. The arrows are not meant to represent the whole nor the full extent of the migrations from any particular centre, but only in so far as they affect our islands. Moreover, it would be impossible to indicate on one map the geographical conditions which obtained during the several migrations. It must be remembered that during the time which elapsed while they passed into the British Islands, these were joined in the north to Scandinavia and in the south to Belgium and France. The various phases of geographical evolution of Europe will be studied in the subsequent chapters, and maps will then be given to show as far as possible in a general way the leading characteristics of these great changes.
I have now given some reasons for the belief that several different migrations of animals entered the British Islands in later Tertiary times. I have also shown why some of them must be looked upon as being older than others, and in so far we have come to a decision as to their relative ages. It still remains for us, however, to examine how their geological ages can be approximately determined. We require for this purpose palæontological aid.