Pleistocene
a term proposed in 1839 by Lyell as an abbreviation for Newer Pliocene; but Edward Forbes, in adopting it, applied it to the next more modern series of beds, called by Lyell Post-Tertiary. Confusion thus arising, its author withdrew the word, but in the "Student's Elements of Geology," he readopted it in the sense of Post-Pliocene. He considers it the older of two divisions of the Post-Tertiary or Quaternary pe- Under it are placed the Reindeer period and the Palæolithic age generally, the Brick-earth, the Fluviatile Loam or Loess, the High Plateaux Gravel or Loess, the Cavern and the Glacial Drift deposits. The climate was colder than now, the summers hot and short, the winters long and severe.