TRANSACTIONS OV THE SECTIONS. 101 



of -winter in Central and North-western Europe. I shall first of all take the evidence 

 oflered by the distribution of the Pleistocene mammalia of Southern Europe, and then 

 compare it with the conclusions which may be drawn from tlie various soundings of 

 the sea at the present time. We will begin with the mammalia of the Iberian penin- 

 sula. The researches of Captain Broome, Professor Busk, and of the late Dr. Fal- 

 coner have established the fact that African mammalia, now no longer to be found 

 in Europe, lived in the Pleistocene caves of Gibraltar. I3esides the Lion, Bhinocvros 

 hemifcccJnis, and Ibex, they discovered the Spotted Ilyffina, and the Serval, both of 

 which are peculiarly African species, and which must therefore have crossed over from 

 that region to inhabit the caves in which they are found, or vice rersct To this list 

 a third African species is added by the African elephant, found, along with flint 

 implements, in a river-gravel near Madrid. The last animal has also been obtained 

 from the caves of Sicily by Dr. Falconer, in association with the Spotted Hyrena 

 (the Elephas antiqiais) and the Grizzly Bear, all of which were living at the time as 

 far nortli as the latitude of Yorkshire. It is obvious that the presence of the 

 African elephant in Sicily must have been brought about by the existence, in old 

 times, of a bridge of land passing from Sicily to those districts which it still inhabits, 

 just as the presence of the Grizzly Bear and Elephas antiquus in Sicily proves that 

 they passed over from their European headquarters before the existence of the 

 Straits of Messina. Nor are we without indications, from the study of the mam- 

 malia alone, of the position of the land which formerly connected Sicily with Africa, 

 A small species of extinct Hippopotamus {H. Fenflandi), almost as small as the 

 living H. liheriensis of Morton, occurs in such incredible abundance in the caves of 

 Palermo, that its remains were formerly exported for use in sugar-retining. This 

 animal has also been proved by Captain Spratt and Dr. Leith Adams to have li-\ed 

 in Malta, along with a pigmj^ elephant {E. Falconeri) and a curious gigantic dor- 

 mouse {Mijoxus vielitensis) ; and it has also been met with in Candia ; and more 

 recently I was able to identify the last lower true molar of the animal among ob- 

 jects which Dr. RoUeston obtained from a Greek tomb at Megalopolis, in the Pelo- 

 ponnese, and which was probably derived from some of the many caves of tlie lime- 

 stone in that district. For this extinct animal to have spread from Sicily to Malta, 

 from Malta to Candia, and from Candia to the Peloponnese, or vice ve7-S(f, the whole 

 of these islands must have been united together, and must have formed the higher 

 gi'ounds of a land that is now sunk beneath the waves of the Mediterranean. 



This was Dr. Falconer's opinion ; and it is fully borne out by the soundings, 

 which prove that a comparatively shallow sea now separates the Peloponnese from 

 Candia, and Sicily from Malta, and the adjacent mainlands of Italy and Africa. 

 The great depth of the sea, no less than 140*0 fathoms, which intervenes between 

 Candia and the mainland of Tangier, offers a difficulty to the view that the land 

 liaa been sunk to that depth since HipiMpotamit^ Pcntlandi\i\eA\n the island; and 

 it is therefore very probable that tlie animal found its way from Sicily and Malta 

 by way of Peloponnese, rather than over an extension of the "African mainland. The 

 soundings reveal the fact that the Mediterranean consists of two deep basins, sepa- 

 rated from each other by comparatively shallow water, one barrier extending from 

 Africa, past the Straits of Gibraltar, to Cadiz, and the other reaching from Tunis, 

 past Sicily and Malta, to join Italy. The elevation of these barriers above water 

 would satisfactorily account for the presence of African mammalia among the 

 Em-opean fauna of the Pleistocene ; and we may therefore reasonably conclude that 

 they were then above water. In that case, however, the Mediterranean would 

 consist of two small land-locked basins, around which there would be comparatively 

 free migration from /Vfrica to Europe, and vice versa. In the map exhibited I have 

 represented the restricted area which the Mediterranean must necessarily have 

 occupied if the land were elevated to tlie extent of 400 fathoms, or the depth between 

 Candia and Peloponnese. The substitution of a mass of land such as this for a 

 stretch of sea in the ^Mediterranean area, could not fail to cause the summer heat 

 to be more intense in France, Germany, and Britain than it is now, while the in- 

 creased elevation of the land, to an extent of 2400 feet, would produce a corre- 

 sponding intensity of winter cold, as Mr. Godwin-Austen has pointed out in the case 

 of the liills of Devonshire. And it must be admitted that this condition of things 

 would react on the climate of France and Germany, and even of Britain. When, 



