THE WEST INDIAN BRIDGE. 27 



remains of an extensive mammalian fauna liave been found, includ- 

 ing animals of the tapir, horse, elephant, bison, deer, and other 

 families. To this period also belong the giant sloths of the Mega- 

 lonyx type. In the West Indies, the North American sloth {Mega- 

 lonyx) and an extinct Hutia have been found in Cuba. Three species 

 of rodents as large as the Virginia deer were obtained in Anguilla 

 by Mr. Wager Ray, and determined by Professor Cope. The writer 

 lately saw in Guadeloupe, in the possession of Mr. L. Guesde, the 

 tooth of a small elephant, which had been discovered in the island. 

 A tooth of the late Florida elephant has also been found in the 

 Bahamas (Lucas). While these animals named are few in number, 

 yet they show land connection between what are now the islands and 

 the continent in the Pleistocene period. The subsidence in mid- 

 Pleistocene days submerged not merely the continental bridge be- 

 tween North and South America, but caused all the lower land of 

 the islands to be drowned, so that there was an almost complete ex- 

 tinction of mammalian life. Indeed, the tombs of this Pleistocene 

 fauna are now largely beneath the sea. 



Further biological testimony of the continental bridge is found 

 among the extensive remains of mammals discovered at Port Ken- 

 nedy, near Philadelphia, upon which Prof. E. D. Cope was engaged 

 at the time of his recent death. These fossils belong to the old 

 Pleistocene fauna, separated by submergence (the Columbia) from 

 the more modern remains. Among these old Pleistocene species 

 there occur South American types, most notably abundant remains 

 of bears, that are not found among the fossils of the Western or 

 Central States, but which appear to. have migrated by way of the 

 West Indian bridge. 



Although a few of the higher animals might survive the general 

 extinction caused by the submergence of the Antillean continent 

 by escaping into the higher lands of the few remaining islands, yet 

 these migrations — as, for example, from savannas to mountain for- 

 ests — would tend to complete their extermination. Besides the 

 restriction of areas, the changes from elevated temperate to low trop- 

 ical climates would further bring about the destruction of many 

 animals. 



Finally, it may be said that the distribution of animal life re- 

 quires the Pleistocene connection between North and South Amer- 

 ica; and consequently the biological and physical evidence, so far as 

 known, coincides in bearing joint testimony of the late West Indian 

 bridge. 



CoKOLusTON. — The late West Indian continent is a geological 

 feature which belongs to the period which just precedes the modern, 

 and it was the breaking down and sinking of the bridge which 



