The Post-Pliocene deposits are often
spoken of as the Pleistocene formations (Gr. _pleistos_, most;
_kainos_, new or recent), in allusion to the fact that the great
majority of the living beings of this period belong to the species
characteristic of the "new" or Recent period.
The _Recent_ deposits, though of the highest possible interest,
do not properly concern the palaeontologist strictly so-called, but
the zoologist, since they contain the remains of none but existing
animals. They are "Pre-historic," but they belong entirely to
the existing terrestrial order. The _Post-Pliocene_ deposits, on
the other hand, contain the remains of various extinct Mammals;
and though Man undoubtedly existed in, at any rate, the later
portion of this period, if not throughout the whole of it, they
properly form part of the domain of the palaeontologist.
The Post-Pliocene deposits are extremely varied, and very widely
distributed; and owing to the mode of their occurrence, the ordinary
geological tests of age are in their case but very partially
available. The subject of the classification of these deposits
is therefore an extremely complicated one; and as regards the age
of even some of the most important of them, there still exists
considerable difference of opinion. For our present purpose, it
will be convenient to adopt a classification of the Post-Pliocene
deposits founded on the relations which they bear in time to the
great "Ice-age" or "Glacial period;" though it is not pretended
that our present knowledge is sufficient to render such a
classification more than a provisional one.
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