Januaky 2, 1898.1 



KNO^A^LEDGE 



16 



highly characteristic of continental Africa, still more 

 markedly is it so of the large island of Madagascar, lying 

 off its eastern coast. In Africa itself many of the ancient 

 types are more or less closely allied to other living 

 mammals, and most of them belong to orders which are 

 abundantly represented in other parts of the world. Very 

 different is, however, the case with Madagascar, of which 

 the great peculiarity is that it has preserved to us a whole 

 fauna of those remarkable animals known as lemurs, which 

 are represented elsewhere only in Africa and the Oriental 

 region, and there by a comparatively small number of 

 species belonging to genera totally distinct from those 

 found in Madagascar. To put the matter more clearly, it 

 may be stated that out of a total of thirteen genera of 

 living lemurs no less than eight are absolutely confined to 

 the island of Madaga.sear, while the remaining five are 

 distributed over Africa, India, and the Malayan islands ; 

 two out of the five being African, one Indian, and two 

 Malayan. The disproportion is, however, not even 

 adequately expressed by the above statement, since, while 

 most of the Malagasy genera are represented by a 

 considerable number of species, of those found in other 

 regions only one has more than two species, while two out of 

 the other four have but a single species each. Lemurs are, 

 indeed, in every sense the characteristic mammals of 

 Madagascar, being far more common in its woods and 

 coppices than are squirrels in those of this country. So 

 common ai-e they said to be in certain parts of the island 

 that, according to the French traveller, M. Grandidier, it 

 is impossible to beat through a single copse without turning 

 ont 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 

 .\merica during the pliocene and miocene divisions of the 

 tertiary period, when we reach the upper part of the eocene 

 epoch we liud their remains occurring in company with 

 those of the extinct anoplotheres and paheotheres, 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 Ijelonged 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, which was formerly widely 

 spread over the globe, and was represented by at least one 

 species in our own i.sland. 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 Lemuria 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, however, for a very pretty 

 theory, the geologists had a word to say on the matter ; 

 and this word was to the efi'ect 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 good 

 evidence- to show was formerly cowuect'd Jiy- land with^ 



Madagascar. We do not, indeed, yet know how the 

 ancient lemurs of Europe got into Africa, but when once 

 there it is certain that they were ultimately cut oif from 

 Europe by a sea which stretched from the Atlantic to the 

 Bay of Bengal in upper eocene times. For some time 

 afterwards, during which Africa and Madagascar still had 

 a free communication, the large mammals characteristic 

 of miocene Europe were unknown in the lands to the south 

 of this great sea, where lemurs and other lowly animals 

 flourished in security During some portion of this period 

 Madagascar must have become separated from Africa, 

 wliile an upheaval of land once more brought Africa into 

 connection with Europe and Asia, and thus allowed it to 

 be overrun by the great hoofed and carnivorous mammals 

 which had hitherto existed only to the north of the 

 dividing s^a. This incursion of large quadrupeds at once put 

 a final stop to the supremacy of the lemurs in Africa, where 

 only a few species have since managed to survive by the 

 aid of their nocturnal habits. In Madagascar, however, 

 where there are still no large quadrupeds, and where the 

 only carnivores are certain civet-like animals, the lemurs 

 have continued to flourish in full exuberance, and the 

 existing state of that island thus offers to our view a 

 picture of what must have been the condition of Africa 

 previous to the advent of its present fauna from the 

 north. The few lemurs now inhabiting the Indian 

 and JIalayan region are, doubtless, also survivors from 

 the original central home of the group, which have found 

 safety in the dense forests of the regions they inhabit 



Fig. 1.' -The Slender Loiis, in Hiiking and sleeping postures, with 

 iigiires of the arm and leg. (From Sir J. E. Tennent'.s 

 " Cejdoii.") * 



A good deal more might be said on the subject of the past 

 and present distribution of lemurs, but by this time the 

 reader will probably be impatient to know something of the 

 characteristics of the animals thus designated by naturalists. 

 Of course comparatively little can be said on this subject 

 in an article of the present length, and it unfortunately 

 happens that the lemurs, as a whole, do not present any 

 very strongly mar'ied single external feature by which 

 they can be distinguished at a glance from all other 

 mammals. It is, however, only with some of the lower 

 monkeys of the New World that they could possibly be 

 confounded by-observant persons (although we have heard 



* We tirw'ihdeBted to Messrs. Longaaane for the iise of this figure. 



