TKKTIAin LAXD ROl'TKS KKIWEEN AMEKIC.\ AND AFRICA. Q:^ 



American aiul Antillean 'JY-rtiarv faunas witli tliosc of Northern 

 Africa, and Soutli-Western lun-ope, and Asia usually postulate 

 cither a mid-Atlantic route ])assing- north-east and east from 

 Trinidad to North Africa and South ]un-o]ie. or a South Atlantic 

 route ■<■■/./ nortliward extensions of Antarctica. 



Tlie mid-Atlantic route is thout,dn to have heen first a conti- 

 nent (virtually Atlantis) hecoming- later, throug-h subsidence, a 

 chain of islands which, according to some authors ( as Dr. Guppy, 

 of Trinidad ) existed into middle or even late Tertiarv times. 



The crystalline highlands of lirazil and ( iuiana are looked 

 upon as ruins of the western extremit}' of this continent, while 

 the eastern remnants are Aladeira and the Canary Islands. 



Some writers of brilliant imag;ination, but not geologists. 

 as Donnelly and Jules Verne, have endeavcnu'ed to prove from 

 Greek and Egyptian traditions of a A-anislied continent to the 

 westward of Northern Africa, that Atlantis existed fluring the 

 Human period and was the scene of a splendid ancient civiliza- 

 tion, lint, as I need not sa}'. its existence since man has been 

 upon the earth is to be looked ui)on only as a charming fairy 

 tale. ^Moreover, its existence at any period is not supported by 

 evidence given by the floor of the Atlantic for some of the pro- 

 found deeps now lie in its pathway. 



Yet it is not impossible tliat there w^as a limited land ma.ss 

 not transoceanic, lying to thf north and east of northern South 

 America, which supplied rock debris for building u]) the PaLxo- 

 ."'oics of Brazil and oldest rocks of Trinidad, for they appear 

 according to Katzer and other< to have been formed of material 

 derived from the eastward. \\'e can more readily believe this, 

 because the presence of deep sea genera of Foraminifera in 

 .^vntillean formations indicates tbat this area lias been sirbjected 

 to very unusual changes of level. 



The South Atlantic route r'/Vr extensions of Antarctica appears 

 somewhat more probable because of the configuration of the 

 ocean floor in that regie n. It was first advocated b\- Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, in 1847, to explain the distribution of flowering, plants. 

 Evidence in its favour was later set forth by Beddard, Moore, 

 Spencer. Ameghino, Hatcher and Ortmann, and, in 1900, Dr. 

 Osborn reccnstructed x\ntarctica by elevation to the three thou- 

 '-and and forty meter sounding line. This connected the Ant- 

 arctic continent with South .America, .Australia and Ne\A- Zealand, 

 but not with Africa. 



This evidence furnished by the oceanic floor against an Ant- 

 arctic connection of South .America and Africa was strengthened 

 in the following year by the results of Ortmann's sturly of the 

 fossil shells and mammals of Patagonia. He found their resem- 

 blance to certain forms of New Zealand and Australia to be so 

 close as to be regarded by him as an indication of a former con- 

 nection of South America with Australia, hiif not ivifh Africa. 



