THE LUSITANIAN FAUNA. 303 



western portion of our continent are so closely 

 related, that an uninterrupted intercourse by land 

 must have existed for a very long period. The 

 Mediterranean, however, throughout the Tertiary 

 period at any rate since miocene times must have 

 had almost constant communication with the Atlantic. 

 According to Professor Suess, this was the case. The 

 Atlantic was joined with the Mediterranean across 

 the valley of the Guadalquivir during the Miocene 

 Epoch, so that Andalusia must have belonged to 

 North Africa in those days. The Straits of Gibraltar 

 are supposed to have been formed in the next epoch. 

 I have already expressed my disagreement with that 

 theory from a zoogeographical point of view. The 

 old Guadalquivir connection probably persisted much 

 longer, though interrupted by temporary periods of 

 a partial retreat so as to uncover sufficient land to 

 allow of an interchange during miocene as well as 

 pliocene times between the European and North 

 African faunas. It is in this way, perhaps, that some 

 of the members of the Alpine fauna have reached 

 Spain by way of Corsica, Sardinia, and North-western 

 Africa, and vice versd. The Balearic Islands were 

 then connected with Spain; and we find there many 

 curious survivals which have long ago become extinct 

 on the mainland 



That the Straits of Gibraltar are only of recent 

 formation has been suggested on zoogeographical 

 evidence by Bourguignat, Simroth, Kobelt, and many 

 others. Dr. Kobelt believes that the former land- 



