432 Prof. E. Suess on the former Connexion 



as follows, according to Lartet : — the spotted hysena, a bear 

 {Ursus arctost), wolf, fox, porcupine, rabbit, Elephas antiquus?, 

 E. africanus ?, hippopotamus (one or two species), Sus (probably 

 Sits scrofa) resembling the North- African, ass?, ox (two forms), 

 stag (one or two species), sheep or some similar animal, a large 

 toad, and a bird. The recent letter of M. Anca confirms the 

 occurrence, in this grotto, of Elephas africanus, while E. antiquus 

 belongs to deposits of another date. We have therefore here, 

 along with typical European forms, as, for example, stags and 

 bears, which are quite foreign to Southern and Eastern Africa, 

 and of which even Morocco and Algiers possess very few repre- 

 sentatives (bears, perhaps only fossil, in caves), a small number of 

 such animals as no longer pass beyond the region of the desert, 

 but are Nilotic and Abyssinian, the African elephant, species 

 of hippopotamus, and a hyaena, not the striped species which at 

 present lives in North Africa and frontier India, but the spotted 

 hyaena which inhabits South and West Africa. These Sicilian 

 bone-caves prove, therefore, the existence of a close contact 

 between South-European and genuine African types, which is 

 nowhere seen in our day. This fact gains in importance if we 

 bear in mind that similar points of contact could also be pointed 

 out in Spain, at the time when the prevailing types of both the 

 faunas were living. It must not be overlooked that, at an earlier 

 period Cuvier sought the nearest representatives of our diluvial 

 fauna in Southern Africa, even at the Cape ; and that our rich 

 antilopean fauna of Pikermi and Ealtavar has a decided African 

 character. 



At the present time it is scarcely possible even to conjecture in 

 what way and by what causes the disappearance from Europe of 

 the present African group of forms, which long had their home 

 in our part of the world, was brought about. M. Anca tells us 

 that, even during the existence of the present fauna, a connexion 

 has continued. As a first indication of a communication, 

 we regard the submarine ridge stretching from Sicily to the 

 opposite coast of Africa, and respecting which Admiral Smyth 

 has informed us that it comprises the extensive plateaux of the 

 " Adventure Bank " and the Skirki Rocks, which must be the 

 sunken Area of Virgil. If, however, as stated, we are still igno- 

 rant of the causes of these changes, we are nevertheless already 

 able not only to distinguish in the present population of Europe 

 a certain number of independent form-groups of faunas, out of 

 which the present population of Europe has sprung; but we can 

 even give the succession in which they have appeared. The first 

 still capable of being recognized is that which we call the African-. 

 it has long since disappeared ; its last traces in Europe are made 

 known to us by M. Anca. The second is the northern, the 



