of North Africa with South Europe. 431 



Strauch contains most of the known reptiles of Southern Europe, 

 as Cistudo europcea, Lacerta viridis, Tropidonotus natrix, Rana 

 esculenta, &c, and that others, as the Chamceleo africanus, are 

 known to occur in Spain and Sicily. Erichson, from the exa- 

 mination of Wagner's collection, observes of the Coleoptera — " A 

 certain number of species belong to the fauna of Middle Europe; 

 a greater portion is spread over all the coast-lands of the Medi- 

 terranean Sea; a few of these are, but the greater portion are 

 not, Egyptian, the Egyptian fauna partaking more of the character 

 of that of Central Africa. Algeria has most species in common 

 with the adjacent Italian islands, Sicily and Sardinia, but fewer 

 with the Italian mainland, as is the case with the Spanish pen- 

 insula and the proximate Morocco land ; and it is often found 

 that Spanish-Moroccan and Italian-Algerian species stand to 

 each other in analogous relations/' 



It is the same with the land-Mollusca. According to Forbes, 

 the agreement between the species of Morocco and Spain 

 is so great that, even upon the heights, the Spanish moun- 

 tain-snails reappear. Glandina algira occurs, in a slenderer 

 form, from Isonzothale to Constantinople, whilst the broader 

 variety unites Lower Italy, Sicily, and Algeria; other South- 

 European species, which appear to have come from theEast, are, 

 on the contrary, absent in Algeria, as Cyclostoma elegans, whilst 

 Cyclostoma sulcatum is found upon the Italian islands and Malta, 

 in the South of France, and South-east Spain, and also in North 

 Africa. All the South-European freshwater bivalves are said to 

 occur in Algeria. In the vegetable kingdom, to avoid giving 

 superfluous examples, it may suffice to mention Chamarops humilis 

 and its distribution on the coast of the Mediterranean, After this 

 it will not be wondered at if, taking another line of argument, 

 Andrew Wagner wrote, in the year 1846, " In a natural-history 

 point of view, the Mediterranean separates North Africa much 

 less from Europe than the Sahai*a separates it from the African 

 continent. According to all evidence, the Sahara was once 

 covered by the sea, and Barbary thus became an island in the 

 Mediterranean." 



The present land-fauna also leads us to recognize a close con- 

 nexion between the Canary Islands, Morocco, Algiers, and South- 

 western Europe, the extension of which to Cornwall was rendered 

 probable by the late Edward Forbes. This fauna is called the 

 Lusitanian land-fauna. 



Let us now proceed to the investigations of M. Anca. In June 

 1860, M. Anca succeeded in finding in the bone-caves of Sicily 

 a number of determinable remains accompanied by land- or sea- 

 shells, such as Helix aspersa and Cardium edule, which are living 

 at this day : the richest list, that of the Grotto of S. Teodoro, is 



