We observe that browsing, forest-living, and river-living types predominate. Among the forest-frequenting carnivores were the wolverene, the otter, two kinds of bear, the wolf, the fox, and the marten; another forest dweller was a wild boar, related to the existing _Sus scrofa_ of Europe. Thus in the very beginning of Pleistocene times the forests of Europe were full of a wild life very similar to that of prehistoric times, mingled with which was the Oriental element, the great elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotami connecting Europe with the far east. Among these eastern migrants in the early Pleistocene were two new arrivals, the primitive wild cattle (_Bos primigenius_), and the first of the bison (_Bison priscus_). The theoretical map of western Europe during First Interglacial times (Fig. 12, also Fig. 56) enables us to understand these migrations from the northeast and from the Orient. As indicated by the sunken river channels discovered on the old continental shelf, the coast-line extended far to the west to the borders of the continental plateau which is now sunk deep beneath the ocean; the British Isles were separated from France not by the sea but by a broad valley, while the Rhine, with the Thames as a western tributary flowed northward over an extensive flood-plain, which is the present floor of the North Sea basin.(12) It is not improbable that the rich mammalian life deposits in the 'Forest Bed of Cromer,' Norfolk, were washed down by tributaries of this ancient Rhine River. In all the great rivers of this enlarged western Europe occurred the hippopotami, and along the river borders and in the forests browsed the Etruscan rhinoceros. Among the grazing and meadow-living forms of the Norfolk country of Britain were species of wild cattle (_Bos_, _Leptobos_), together with two species of horses, including a lighter form resembling Steno's horse (_E. stenonis cocchi_) of the Val d'Arno and a heavier type probably belonging to the forests. The giant elephant of this period is the southern mammoth (_E. meridionalis trogontherii_), a somewhat specialized descendant of the Pliocene southern mammoth of the valley of the Arno; this animal is best known from a superb specimen discovered at Durfort (Fig. 42) and preserved in the Paris Museum. It is said to have attained a height of over 12 feet as compared with 11 feet 3 inches, the height of the largest existing African elephants. It is probable that all these south Asiatic migrants into Europe were partially or wholly covered with hair, in adaptation to the warm, temperate climate of the summers and the cool winters. To the south, in the still milder climate of Italy, the arrival of another great species, known as the 'ancient' or 'straight-tusked elephant' (_E. antiquus_), is recorded. This animal had not yet reached France or Britain.