chap, vi.] MAMMALIA OF THE OLD WORLD. 117 



not only find great felines, surpassing in size and destructive 

 power the lions and leopards of Africa, with hyaenas of a size 

 and in a variety not to be equalled now, but also huge rhino- 

 ceroses and elephants, two forms of giraffes, and a host of 

 antelopes, which, from the sample here obtained, were probably 

 quite as numerous and varied as they now are in Africa. 

 Joined with this abundance of antelopes we have the absence 

 of deer, which probably indicates that the country was open 

 and somewhat of a desert character, since there were deer in 

 other parts of Europe at this epoch. The occurrence of but a 

 single species of monkey is also favourable to this view, since 

 a well-wooded country would most likely have supplied many 

 forms of these animals. 



Miocene Fauna of Central and Western Europe. 



"We have now to consider the Miocene fauna of Europe 

 generally, of which we have very full information from nu- 

 merous deposits of this age in France, Switzerland, Italy, 

 Germany, and Hungary. 



Primates. — Three distinct forms of monkeys have been found 

 in Europe — in the South of France, in Switzerland, and Wurtem- 

 berg ; one was very like Colobus or Semnopithecus ; the others — 

 Pliopithecus and Pryopithecus — were of higher type, and be- 

 longed to the anthropomorphous apes, being nearest to the genus 

 Hylobates or gibbons. Both have occurred in the South of France, 

 The Dryopithecus was a very large animal (equal to the gorilla), 

 and M. Lartet considers that in the character of its dentition it 

 approached nearer to man than any of the existing anthropoid 

 apes. 



Insectivora. — These small animals are represented by numerous 

 remains belonging to four families and a dozen genera. Of 

 Erinaceus (hedgehog) several species are found in the Upper 

 Miocene ; and in the Lower Miocene of Auvergne two extinct 

 genera of the same family — Amphechinus and Tetracus — have 

 been discovered. Several species of Talpa (mole) occur in the 

 Upper Miocene of France, while the extinct Dinylus is from Ger- 

 many, and Palonospalax from the Lower Miocene of the Isle of 



