PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 186 
Smith Woodward (Woodward, °98, p. 417) takes even a 
wider view, and ascribes the origin of the Mammalia to a 
southern land. He says—‘“ No undoubted trace of he 
Jurassic land fauna has hitherto been discovered in the 
Southern Hemisphere . . . but it is extremely probable 
that on some continent in that part of the globe the Anomo- 
dontia were gradually being transformed into Mammalia. 
At least, in Jurassic formations both of Europe and North 
America there are occasional remains of sma!] mammals as 
large as rats; and the most plausible explanation of these 
is that they were accidental escapes from some other region. 
with a more advanced fauna, just as.the rats and mice of the 
present day in the comparatively antique realm of Australia, 
W. L. Sclater (Sclater, 99, p. 197) says—- Aquatic 
mammalia which pass their lives entirely, or for the greater 
art, in water, are, of course, subject. to very different laws 
of distribution from the terrestrial! PORE Speaking of 
the present distribution of Otaria, ‘I think, 
therefore, we may assume that Otaria was s aaieinally an 
Antarctic form, but has travelled northwards along the 
West American coast, and is now firmly established in the 
North Pacific: In a parallel way in the class of Birds, the 
Albatrosses (Diomedea), which is essentially » :roup of the 
Antarctic seas, are represented by three distinct species: in 
the North Pacific.” Further on (/.c., p. 216) he says-—" it 
is evident that the Pacific has much ie in common with 
the Notopelagian region than the Atlantic. Otaria and 
Macrorhinus, quite unknown in the Atlantic, extend them- 
selves to the northern extremity cf the Pacific, the former 
pervading that ocean up to Bebring’s Strait. and the latter 
reaching ‘to the Californian coast. It follows that in former 
ages there must have been scme barrier in the Atlantic 
which did not exist in the Pacific, to stop their progresa 
northwards. The only barrier one can imagine that would 
have effected this must-have been a land umicing South 
America and Africa, across which they could not travel.” 
Sclater further points out that theoccnrrenceof the Manatee 
‘on both sides of the Atlantit, and also of the Monk-seal 
(Monachus), with one species.in the Mediterranean and on 
the African coast and another in the West Indies, point to 
the same conclusion. 
Tue Union or Arrica with Sourn AMERICA. 
The former presence of a land connection between Africa 
and South America would lead not only to peculiarities in 
the distribution of marine mammals to which it was a 
