Count DeSaporta, who made special researches in the flora of this period, found the remains of a forest growth buried under lava on the side of a mountain in Cantal France, at an elevation of about four thousand feet above the level of the sea. This consisted principally of pines. This shows that probably all Northern Europe was covered with somber forests of pine. In the same section he found, buried under volcanic ash, a vegetation consisting mostly of deciduous trees—maples, alders, poplars, willows, elms, and ashes. As this was growing at the height Of about twenty-three hundred feet in Cantal France, it probably represents the vegetation of Britain and Northern Germany. Finally, the vegetation of Central and Southern France, as well as Northern Italy, was intermediate in character between the luxuriant evergreen forests of the Miocene Age and that now growing there. The tropical character of the vegetation was evidently passing away. The climate over a large part of Europe was now temperate, though probably warmer than at present.55 In the Mammalia we have to notice the disappearance of some species, and the arrival and spread of some others. The apes living as far north as Germany in the Miocene Age were restricted to Southern France and Italy in the Pliocene, and, at its close, vanished altogether from Europe. The first living species of mammals is found in the remains of the hippopotamus that frequented the rivers of Pliocene times. The mastodon of Miocene times was still to be seen, but along with it was a species of true elephants. The hipparion survived into this epoch, but the horse also makes its appearance. Great quantities of deer roamed over the land; and, as might be expected where they were so abundant, the carnivorous animals allied to the bears and wolves, panthers, linxes, and tigers, were also to be found. “At night,” says Mr. Dawkins, “the Pliocene forests of Central France echoed with the weird laughter of the hyena.”