I 



The Fauna of Spain. 189 



parched by drought, or denuded of their soil by rain and melt- 

 ing snow ; and watercourses which might have rendered 

 service to commerce and agriculture are alternately scanty 

 streams or raging torrents. The physical conditions of the 

 greater part of Spain are, therefore, those of a somewhat cold 

 country, owing to the high average elevation, tempered by the 

 heat incidental to the unobstructed rays of the southern sun, 

 and the fauna might, therefore, be expected to correspond in 

 the main with that of Central Europe. 



The visitations of great cold, alternating with more tem- 

 perate periods which affected the North of Europe during the 

 glacial epochs, do not seem to have exercised any important 

 influence upon the country to the south of the Pyrenees. It 

 is true that signs of glaciation are not altogether wanting in 

 the vicinity of such lofty ranges as the Sierra Nevada and the 

 Guadarrama, but they are merely partial, and no ice cap seems 

 to have overspread the entire country. The reindeer and the 

 musk-sheep (Ovihos moschatus) came down to the south of 

 France, but no further. On the other hand several species of 

 extinct and living animals are found in Spain which are entirely 

 or nearly absent from other parts of Europe, and all these are 

 African forms. There is geological evidence that the Spanish 

 Peninsula was formerly united to Africa at a point about 50 

 miles to the west of Gibraltar, where, at the present day, the 

 maximum depth of the sea does not exceed 200 fathoms. A 

 similar union existed between Sicily and Northern Africa, and 

 as is shown by the African elements in the fauna of the 

 southern portions of these two countries, they were at one 

 time disconnected from the Northern portions of Europe. In 

 Spain this disconnection appears to have prevailed over the 

 district at present comprised between the Sierra Nevada, the 

 Sierra Morena, and the Sierra Guadarrama. 



Time will only permit of a brief glance at the more 

 interesting features in the distribution of the Spanish fauna, 

 and it may be as well to commence with a species peculiar to 

 the northern portion of the country. The chamois (Antilope 

 riipicapra) called "isard'' in the French Pyrenees, and on 

 the Spanish side, known as " 7'ebeco," ranges along the whole 

 Northern chain, from Mont Canigou, within sight of the 

 Mediterranean, as far as Galicia on the Atlantic ; but no trace 

 of it has ever been found to the South of the Valley of the 

 Ebro. One is said to have been seen at daybreak on a very 

 misty morning in the Sierra Nevada, by a distinguished 

 member of the Alpine Club, but twenty years of research 

 have failed to confirm his statement, and with every respect 

 for his judgment, I think he must have been misled by a 



