After leaving the coast of Germany the ice-edge appears to have remained in the western Baltic, retreating slowly for some 8000 years. About 10,000 B.C. it lay along the southern coast of Sweden, and during the next 2000 years it withdrew to about 59° N. This was the Gotiglacial stage. Here came a pause, when, for 200 years, about 8000 B.C., owing presumably to a change for the worse in the climate, the ice-edge remained in one position, forming a great moraine. Then came another period of very rapid retreat, the Finiglacial occupying nearly 3000 years, followed by a further halt of some duration near Ragunda, about 5000 B.C. After this the ice-sheet split into two portions, and the Glacial period is regarded as over. In the Alps there were similar periods of regression and of halting or readvance. The first, known as the Bühlstadium, corresponded to the Baltic readvance (Chapter V). The second, the Gschnitz-stadium, with a snow-line 2000 feet below the present (i.e. mean temperature about 6° F. lower than now), has not been dated, but probably occurred about 8000 B.C. This was followed by a warmer period, probably as warm as and drier than the present, after which the glaciers readvanced about 5000 B.C. in the third or Daun-stadium, when the snow-line was depressed 1000 feet (temperature 3° F. lower than now). In the lower Nile valley the deposition of gravel ceased, and that of mud began about 8000 B.C., indicating that at this time the climate of north-east Africa reached its present state of dryness. It is at present difficult to give more than a tentative explanation of these oscillations of climate during the Retreat Phase. Northern Europe was at the time passing through a complicated series of geographical changes. As the ice left the Baltic basin the latter became the site of a cold ice-lake, with narrow outlets to the Atlantic by way of the Sound and the Belts. At this time the recession was slow. Then the retreat of the ice opened a connexion with the White Sea, and elevation closed the outlet to the west. This probably made the waters still colder, and the Fennoscandian pause occurred. Elevation now closed the connexion with the White Sea, and an entirely closed-in ice-lake resulted. During this stage the retreat was slow, until between 7000 and 6000 B.C., when the ice-sheet vacated Scania, and direct communication between the Baltic and the Atlantic was opened across Lakes Wener and Wetter, and the climate, though still arctic at first, became appreciably warmer by 6000 B.C.