DERIVATION OF THE FAUNA 21 



been discovered on the eastern shore of the Victoria Nyanza, 

 near Karungu, British East Africa, in beds of Miocene age. 

 Other fragments supposed to belong to a Dinotherium have 

 been found in the lower Omo River near its entry into Lake 

 Rudolf. 



North of the true African region we find extensive de- 

 posits of mammal remains near the Mediterranean. The 

 oldest of these are the Fayum beds of Eocene, Oligocene, 

 and Middle Miocene ages, situated near Cairo. In the 

 Eocene beds have been found remains of the toothed whales, 

 sirenians, and generalized mammals allied to tapirs and 

 elephants. Overlying these in the Oligocene beds remains 

 of giant hyraxes and primitive proboscidians have been 

 obtained. A large mammal, Paleomastodon, allied to the 

 elephant, has been found in the Miocene beds, together with 

 a primitive rhinoceros. 



Mammals clostly related to the existing African species 

 are first met with in the Pliocene of Algeria. The water- 

 buck, the gazelle, and an antelope allied to the eland occur 

 in beds of this age, together with remains of a horse, Hip- 

 parion, a hippopotamus, and the sabre-toothed tiger. Dur- 

 ing the Pleistocene age which followed there existed in 

 North Africa many species of antelopes. Beds of this age 

 in Algeria contain the remains of several species of harte- 

 beests, two duikers, a reedbuck, several gazelles, two sable or 

 roan antelopes, a koodoo, one eland, and two species of buf- 

 falo. This is almost as great a number of species as we find 

 living to-day anywhere in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. 



Our data for the determination of the geological history 

 of African mammals are thus very scanty. Almost the only 

 Ethiopian records are Pleistocene, which is too recent to con- 



