5o 4 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Africa ; that they were evolving elsewhere, either in Europe, 

 Asia, or North America, and preparing for the great inter- 

 change of life which would occur when Africa should again be 

 connected with the other continents." 



The explorations carried on in the Fayum by Dr. C. W. 

 Andrews resulted in the acquisition of a few specimens of 

 interest, one of which (as mentioned in The Geological Magazine 

 for March) served to demonstrate that the supposed genus 

 Phiomia is really based on a portion of the low r er jaw of a 

 young individual of a species of the proboscidean genus 

 Palccomastodon retaining the milk-teeth. Very curious is the 

 discovery of the existence of a huge globe-like chamber on 

 the side of the lower jaw of Geniohyus, which in life may have 

 contained a gland. There are certain indications that this 

 genus, which was originally regarded as one of the Suidae, 

 may be related to the hyraxes — an interpretation which would 

 accord best with Prof. Osborn's view. The existence in the 

 Fayum Eocene of remains of a large bird related to the herons 

 is a discovery of considerable interest. 



Egypt is, however, by no means the only part of Africa 

 from which discoveries of fossil vertebrates have been recorded 

 during the period under review ; and from the fact that mam- 

 malian remains have been described from three distinct localities 

 at the opposite extremity of that continent, we may expect in 

 the future to obtain further important information with regard 

 to the past history of the South African fauna. The first of the 

 papers referred to is published in the final report of a recent geo- 

 logical survey of Natal and Zululand, in which Dr. W. B. Scott, 

 of Princeton, New Jersey, gives a description of the two last 

 lower molars of an extinct elephant obtained, in company with 

 remains of rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and antelopes, from a 

 deposit of late Tertiary age in Zululand. The elephant, for 

 which the author proposes the name Elcphas zulu, has the 

 constituent plates of its molar teeth more numerous and thinner 

 than those of the existing African species. They are described 

 as being to a great extent intermediate in this respect between 

 the latter and those of the extinct European and Asiatic E. anti- 

 quus; but according to the figures they seem much nearer the 

 molars of the species last named. It is suggested that E. zulu 

 may have been the ancestor of the living E. africanus, in which 

 case it would almost be imperative to regard the molars of the 



