PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION D. IO5 



butioiis in this country — terrestrial and marine— should ai)peal 

 strongly. For South Africa possesses great interest to the zoo- 

 geographer. The history of our fauna cannot be elucidated, nor 

 the true relationship to other parts of the world indicated satisfac- 

 torily until such data as a survey would supply are accessible. 

 Many of the generalisations accepted at the present day are based 

 on meagre information, and will no doubt be revised. Localised 

 surveys of certain groups which appear to possess some special 

 interest to zoogeogra])hers have been attempted, but naturally 

 are far from having any character of completeness. 



The fauna of the Bokkeveld beds, and the fauna and flora of 

 the beds of the Karroo Basin, suggest close relationships in 

 Devonian, and in late Palaeozoic and earlv Mesozoic times with 

 South Africa and India, and possibly even more directly with the 

 Antarctic Continent. There is much evidence supporting the idea 

 of a late Palaeozoic and earlv Mesozoic Gondwanaland, but 

 this evidence can by no means be regarded as conclusive. The 

 existence of such a land mass is of great importance to the geolo- 

 gist working in the Southern Hemisphere ; and the acceptance of 

 such must fundamentally affect the problems of dvnamical 

 geologv in this hemisphere. The student of zoogeography must 

 also take into consideration the significance of such a land mass 

 in attempting to elucidate the meaning of the present faunal 

 distribution. Further, if such be the case, we might exr)ect that a 

 deeper knowledge of present faunal distributions in this country 

 might be reflected on the problem of Gondwanaland. We might 

 reasonably hope for the discovery of forms i^reserved on our 

 mountains, and descendants of a stock derived from Gondwana- 

 land. 



So far the little survey work attempted has been successful 

 in finding generic representatives of Phreodrilid Oligochfetes, 

 and the peculiar Crustacean — Phreatoicus. The former grotip 

 occupies an important intermediate position between Microdrilid 

 and Megadrilid Oligochceta, and enjoys a circumpolar distribu- 

 tion, being found in South America, South Africa, Australia. Tas- 

 mania, and New Zealand. The peculiar habitat — the forms 

 occurring on mountains or adopting a semi-parasitic habit on 

 hosts endemic to the particular area — strongly support the idea 

 that they are the remains of an archaic stock which probably once 

 occurred throughout Gondwanaland. Phreatoicus enjoys a cir- 

 cumpolar distribution, and is highly sjiecialised. Further search 

 may yet unearth such archaic forms as Anaspides. which so far 

 has been found only in the mountains of Tasmania. From these 

 remarks I think it should be clear that a detailed zoological survey 

 will furnish not only information of direct economic value and 

 data of interest to zoological research, but will help materially 

 towards developing a positive position on the part of zoologists ir 

 rep-ard to the generalisations accepted by many geologists, 

 which are of the greatest importance to geological research in 

 general. 



