Palaeontogical Map of the British Islands

Rare map based on the work of Professor Edward Forbes. Superbly decorated with the head of the extinct Irish Elk or Irish Giant Elk, the largest deer that ever lived and stood 2.1m at the shoulders. There are two extensive keys; at top left is the colour key and the one at top right is the key to the symbols used.

Forbes In 1846, published in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, i. 336, his important essay On the Connection between the distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles, and the Geological Changes which have affected their Area, especially during the epoch of the Northern Drift.;

It is therein pointed out that, in accordance with the theory of their origin from various specific centres, the plants of Great Britain may be divided into five well-marked groups: the W and SW Irish, represented in the N of Spain, the SE Irish and SW English, related to the flora of the Channel ISlands and the neighbouring part of France; the SE English, characterized by species occurring on the opposite French coast; a group peculiar to mountain summits, Scandinavian in type; and, lastly, a general or Germanic flora. From, a variety of arguments the conclusion is drawn that the greater part of the terrestrial animals and flowering plants of the British Islands migrated thitherward, over continuous land, at three distinct periods, before, during and after the glacial epoch.