THE ORIENTAL MIGRATION. 28 1 



the newly-formed Italian peninsula, but the plants 

 and animals belonging to the older flora and fauna 

 were mostly destroyed by newer and more vigorous 

 immigrants. A few of the more hardy ones survived, 

 and are a standing testimony of the geographical 

 revolutions of that part of Southern Europe. 



That the Mediterranean area has undergone such 

 profound geographical changes as I have endeavoured 

 to indicate is no new theory. Many zoologists who 

 have investigated the fauna of that region, and have 

 attempted to explain the faunistic relations, had to 

 acknowledge that the migrations must have taken 

 place under geographical conditions entirely different 

 from those obtaining at present. Riitimeyer long 

 ago remarked that it seemed to him much more 

 probable that Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis were 

 peopled by way of Gibraltar, and perhaps also by 

 Sicily and Malta from Europe, than Southern 

 Europe from Africa. After careful conchological 

 researches in the Western Mediterranean region, 

 Dr. Kobelt came to the conclusion that formerly 

 Southern Spain and Morocco must have been 

 united by a broad land-connection. Sicily and 

 Algeria do not apparently show any very intimate 

 relationship conchologically, but farther west in the 

 mountains of Tetuan Dr. Kobelt discovered a colony 

 of Sicilian forms. 1 



1 There are a great many instances of discontinuous distribution 

 among Oriental Invertebrates. Thus the Freshwater Crab ( Telphitsa 

 faiviatilis] occurs in Southern Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and 



