INTRODUCTION. XV 



instance of such regional distribution occurs in the mammalian 

 faunas of Pleistocene Europe and modern Africa, both of which, 

 if found in a fossil condition, would almost certainly be placed on 

 the same geological horizon 1 , and it is pretty certain that there 

 must be many analogous examples lower down in the geological 

 scale. 



In the third column of the new table the divisions of the Oligo- 

 cene are given as now generally accepted by English writers. The 

 reasons why these divisions are not adopted in the present work are, 

 first, that it is at present almost impossible to classify the Ame- 

 rican Tertiaries so as to make them harmonize with this triple 

 division ; secondly, that geologists are not all agreed as to the limits 

 of the term Oligocene 2 ; and, thirdly, that the writer has desired, as 

 far as possible, to make the geological classification employed in this 

 work agree with that adopted by Professor Flower in the ' Catalogue 

 of the Vertebrata in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons,' 

 part ii. Mammalia (1884). 



TABLE OF EUROPEAN MAMMALIFEROUS STRATA. 

 Without Oligocene. With Oligocene. 



PLEISTOCENE. Tour-de-Boulade and Neschers 3 PLEISTOCENE. 



(Puy-de-D6me), and all beds 

 above the St. Prest and Forest- 

 bed groups. 



LOWEST PLEISTOCENE f St. Prest (Eure-et-Loire). LOWEST PLEISTOCENE 



or I Malbattu (Haute-Loire). or 



TOPMOST PLIOCENE. Norfolk Forest-bed. TOPMOST PLIOCENE. 



UPPER PLIOCENE. Val d'Arno (Tuscany). UPPER PLIOCENE. 



Perrier, Arde, Peyrolles, &c. (Puy- 



de-D6me). 



Coupet and Vialette (Haute-Loire). 

 Norwich Crag. 



1 The most noticeable common forms are Hyana crocuta, H. striata, Felis leo, 

 F. pardus, F. pardina, and Hippopotamus amphibius. 



3 Thus Max Schlosser (' Palaeontographica,' vol. xxxi. p. 96) retains group A 

 of the following table in the Lower Miocene, and commences the Upper Eocene 

 with the Montmartre gypsum, the upward restriction of the Oligocene being 

 followed in the table given in Part I. of this Catalogue. Qeikie again (' Text- 

 book of Geology,' 1st ed. p. 856) includes both groups A and B of the Lower 

 Miocene in the Upper Oligocene, and restricts the Middle Oligocene to the 

 Calcaire de Brie and its equivalents. 



3 See Deperet, 'Bull. Soc. Geol. France,' ser. 3, vol. xii. p. 283. The 

 Neschers beds are quoted in Part I. p. 130 of this work as Pliocene. 



