The outlying northern localities where _E. fasciatus_ occurs within the Hemlock-White Pine-Northern Hardwoods Association are all within the region of Pleistocene glaciation, which 20,000 years ago, or even more recently, were covered with the continental ice mass during Wisconsinan time. Yet the localized northern populations of skinks evidently are relicts from a time when favorable conditions were more widespread in the general region. Braun (_op. cit._:464-465) indicates five successive postglacial stages in the trends of climate up to the present, as revealed by bog pollen profiles: (1) Cool and moist; (2) warm and dry; (3) warm and humid; (4) warm and dry; (5) cool and moist. Stages 2 and 4 would have been most favorable for encroachment of the skink into glaciated regions, whereas stages 3 and 5 might have caused retrenchment of its populations. In view of the localized habits of individuals, and the lack of any mechanism for rapid dispersal, the time available seems no more than adequate for the distance of 200 miles or more northward that the skinks must have moved since the final retreat of the ice sheet. This northward movement involved crossing of formidable barriers such as the Great Lakes. Even minor barriers such us small rivers and creeks, might be expected to halt population movements for long periods. [Illustration: FIG. 6. Geographic distribution of _Eumeces fasciatus_ as indicated by published records (marginal and near-marginal records shown, excluding those of doubtful validity). (1) Distribution of the Deciduous Forest Formation of eastern North America, as mapped by Braun (1950), but excluding the Hemlock-White Pine-Northern Hardwoods Association that is transitional to the more northern coniferous forests. (2) The shaded area in Kansas that is outside the Deciduous Forest Formation comprises the Kaw River District, Cherokee Prairie District, and southern Osage Savannah Biotic District (Cockrum, 1952).] The over-all geographic range is approximately square, roughly a thousand miles across, from north to south and from east to west. On the east and south it is limited by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. On the north and west its limits correspond with those of the hardwood forests. On the northwest, it reaches southwestern Minnesota and the southeastern corner of South Dakota, extending far out into peninsular extensions of the Oak-Hickory Association which penetrate westward into the prairies along the main river valleys.