286 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part. hi. 



and west, we find, along with much that is peculiar, a number of 

 genera showing a decided Oriental, and others with an equally 

 strong South American affinity ; this latter more particularly show- 

 ing itself among reptiles and insects. 2. All over Africa, but more 

 especially in the east, we have abundance of large ungulates and 

 felines — antelopes, giraffes, buffaloes, elephants, and rhinoceroses, 

 with lions, leopards, and hysenas, all of types now or recently 

 found in India and "Western Asia. 3. But we also have to note 

 the absence of a number of groups which abound in the above- 

 named countries, such as deer, bears, moles, and true pigs ; while 

 camels and goats — characteristic of the desert regions just to 

 the north of the Ethiopian — are equally wanting. 4. There is 

 a wonderful unity of type and want of speciality in the vast 

 area of our first sub-region extending from Senegal across to the 

 east coast, and southward to the Zambezi; while West Africa and 

 South Africa each abound in peculiar types. 5. We have the 

 extraordinary fauna of Madagascar to account for, with its 

 evident main derivation from Africa, yet wanting all the larger 

 and higher African forms ; its resemblances to Malaya and to 

 South America ; and its wonderful assemblage of altogether 

 peculiar types. 



Here we find a secure starting-point, for we are sure that 

 Madagascar must have been separated from Africa before the 

 assemblage of large animals enumerated above, had entered 

 it. Now, it is a suggestive fact, that all these belong to types 

 which abounded in Europe and India about the Miocene period. 

 It is also known, from the prevalence of Tertiary deposits over 

 the Sahara and much of Arabia, Persia, and Northern India, 

 that during early Tertiary times a continuous sea from the Bay 

 of Bengal to the British Isles completely cut off all land com- 

 munication between Central and Southern Africa on the one 

 side, and the great continent of the Eastern hemisphere on the 

 other. When Africa was thus isolated, its fauna probably had a 

 character somewhat analogous to that of South America at the 

 same period. Most of the higher types of mammalian life were 

 absent, while lemurs, Edentates, and Insectivora took their place. 

 At this period Madagascar was no doubt united with Africa, 



