Rev. Mr Cowan 07i the Natural History of Madagascar. 130 



of a large river cow that once existed amongst them, 

 and when we exposed the skulls and skeletons of the 

 animal at Sira-bd in northern Betsileo, tliey were at once 

 recognised by tlie elderly amongst tlie people as being 

 the remains of that animal. At this place live or six skulls 

 and the remains of the skeletons were found, all within an 

 area of a few square yards, and close to the surface of tlie 

 ground. One genus of the African mammals is found only in 

 India and adjacent islands. The problem as to the geo- 

 graphical position of JMadagascar, as to whether it is part of 

 a former continent which we might term an I ndo -African 

 continent, or as to whether it was at no time in connection 

 with Africa, is one difficult to solve as far as the mammals are 

 concerned. It is easy to imagine a time, when a wide ocean 

 rolled over Sahara and Arabia, separating two continents, a 

 north and south, each distinct in their fauna — the north, rich 

 in the higher forms of life, such as the carnivora, — the south, 

 with its lemurs and its large, almost wingless birds, and of 

 a subsequent period when the eastern part of the southern 

 continent is gradually sinking, while the north, such as 

 Sahara and Arabia, are rising from the waves, till at last there 

 remains only Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands retain- 

 ing their old forms of life, and the higher animals are pushing 

 southward through the Sahara into our now central and 

 southern Africa. But such a theory would scarcely explain 

 the wide differences that now exist between Africa and 

 Madagascar, 



We are met in Madagascar by an extraordinary fauna, 

 having resemblances to that of the African, the Malayan, and 

 the South American, but with a large number of peculiar 

 types. Of the lemurs, the most characteristic family of 

 Madagascar, we have six genera, represented by thirty-four 

 species, not one of which exists in Africa, besides a large num- 

 ber of peculiar animals, such as the aye- aye and the crypto- 

 procta. Now, of these many Malagasy types we might expect 

 to find some at least, in South and South-Central Africa, if 

 there had been, as has been suggested, such an intimate con- 

 nection in times past. Few animals are better adapted for self- 

 preservation than the lemurs, their arboreal habits and their 



