Another subject which he handled more fully than in _The Great Ice Age_ was the antiquity of the human relics of palæolithic type which had been found in caves and river gravels. Many British geologists of the highest reputation held that these were of post-glacial date, but Prof. Geikie had always contended strongly that some at least of the deposits containing the implements of early man were interglacial or preglacial. Time has justified his sagacity, and it is now fairly widely recognised that these relics date back in some cases to periods anterior at any rate to the last glaciation of Northern Europe. The old controversy regarding changes of climate in Pleistocene time reappears in this volume, and the author stoutly maintains the position he had taken up in _The Great Ice Age_, that the association of the remains of mammals of southern and northern types in gravel deposits can be explained only on the hypothesis that periods of genial alternated with periods of arctic climate. But perhaps the main purpose of this book, as seems to be indicated by the title selected for it, was to discuss the changes that had taken place in Europe since the melting of the ice of the last stage of the glacial period. The phenomena of the raised beaches that encircle our Scottish coasts, with the alluvial or “carse” clays of the river valleys intimately associated with the beach deposits, and the peat and buried forests of our moorlands and coasts, had fascinated Prof. Geikie since the beginning of his glacial investigations, and he felt that for their proper discussion more scope was required than was afforded by such a book as _The Great Ice Age_. These problems were full of difficulties and the evidence appeared often contradictory or misleading, but he managed to piece it together and to arrive at a consistent and clearly reasoned interpretation. The raised beaches indicate, of course, changes of the level of sea and land; but these were far more considerable than the beaches alone would indicate, as the submerged forests that in many places are intercalated with the beach and carse deposits show that at certain stages the land area had been far more extensive than at present. This was confirmed by many facts regarding the present distribution of animals and plants in the British Isles which could not otherwise be logically explained; and in this field of investigation he gratefully acknowledges the assistance furnished by his old friend Dr Buchanan White, with whom he was in close contact since he was then living in Perth. The raised beaches also were associated with the closing phases of glaciation in Britain, since both the 100-foot and the 50-foot beaches in the north of Scotland showed effects of contemporaneous glacial action, and the older marine shell beds contained shells now living only in Arctic seas. The interpretation of the evidence to be obtained from the study of peat-bogs and buried forests was by no means so clear, but