THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 97 



M. Grandidier, it is impossible to beat through a single 

 copse without turning out at least one of these strange 

 creatures. 



In order to arrive at the true reason of the present dis- 

 tribution of any group of animals, it is always necessary to 

 consult the records of geology ; and it appears from these 

 that while lemurs were unknown both in Europe and 

 North America during the Pliocene and Miocene divisions 

 of the Tertiary period, when we reach the upper part of 

 the Eocene epoch we find their remains occurring in 

 company with those of the extinct anoplotheres and 

 palseotheres, or other allied animals, in both the eastern 

 and western continents. It is, however, hardly necessary 

 to observe that the whole of these early lemurs belonged 

 to genera which are quite distinct from any of those living 

 at the present day, although one of them appears to have 

 nearly been allied to the African group. 



The discovery of these extinct lemurs, which is but com- 

 paratively modern, at once reveals the fact that this group 

 of animals is a very ancient one, and one formerly widely 

 spread over the globe, and represented by at least one 

 species in our own island. Not many years ago it was 

 sought to explain the present peculiar distribution of 

 lemurs by the supposition that a large island or continent 

 formerly existed in the Indian Ocean ; and the name 

 Leinuria was suggested, appropriately enough, for this 

 hypothetical land. From this presumed ancestral home 

 it was considered that the lemurs had spread on all sides, 

 some to find a refuge in the Malayan islands, others in 

 the forests of Ceylon and southern India, but the larger 

 number in Madagascar and Africa. Unfortunately, how- 

 ever, for a very pretty theory, the geologists had a word 

 to say on the matter ; and this word was to the effect that 

 Lemuria could not possibly have existed at the time its 

 presence was required for the needs of the theory. 



With our fuller knowledge of fossil lemurs any such 

 hypothetical land is, however, quite unnecessary to explain 

 the present distribution of the group. At or about the 

 time these animals existed in Europe there is little doubt 

 that they were also spread over Africa, which there is 



