SURVIVAL OF PRIMEVAL ANIMAL TYPES. 333 



Emin Pasha,* in his Letters from Central Africa, thus 

 expresses himself with respect to the fauna of that 

 continent, which he says " occupies a most exceptional 

 position, as regards antiquity, geological antiquity I 

 might say, compared with the existing types of later 

 date; and indeed the camelopard, hippopotamus, Cape 

 ant-eater, and others, belonging to a period of creation 

 long passed away, intrude as anomalies in our times." f 

 The hippopotamus, as we know, is at present 

 exclusively confined to the warm waters of the great 

 river systems of Africa; here it flourishes, but outside 

 the tropics it is an exotic. Nevertheless just to show 

 what changes time has produced upon the face of our 

 earth, both in climates and in the fauna of countries 

 there was a period when the elephant and the hippopo- 

 tamus were common in Britain: entire skeletons of 

 these animals having been found in a bed of dark 

 blue clay at Leeds, while further North, at Kirkdale 

 Cave, in Lat. 54 15' N., remains of the hippopotamus 

 occur abundantly, along with those of the ox, elephant, 

 horse, and other quadrupeds, including vast collections 

 of remains of the hyaenas which devoured them. 

 This, of course, points with almost conclusive force to 

 the fact that the climate of Yorkshire was then tropical 

 in its temperature, while the great game of the African 

 bush region disported themselves upon its wild primeval 



* This was his Arab title. His real name and designation was 

 Dr. Eduard Schnitzer. "Emin" in Turkish- Arabic means " The 

 Faithful One." His intention was to practise as a Turkish physician, 

 and by adopting this title "El Hakim, Emin Effendi" he hoped to 

 avoid the prejudice felt against a Frankish practitioner. 



f Emin Pasha's Letters from Central Africa, collected by Professor 

 Schweinfurth and others; translated from the German by Mr. R. W. 

 Filkin, 1888, p. 591. 



See Island Life, by Alfred R. Wallace, 1880, p. 114. 



