464 Dr. C. I. Forsyth Major — Rodents of W. Mediterranean. 



Professor C. De Stefani, after having strenuously opposed — and 

 distorted — my views,^ adopted my remarks as his own on the dis- 

 tinctness of the post-Pliocene faunas of those islands. Among his 

 ' novel' observations on the island of Sardinia is the following : — 

 " Le quaternaire est represente par des gres tres recents et par 

 une infinite de breches osseuses contenant une faune abondante et 

 etrange, tout a fait detachee des formes continentales, de rongeurs, 

 d'insectivores, et memo de carnivores d'un type special."'- Thus it 

 has come to pass that in the last two editions of De Lapparent's 

 Manual of Geology^ the credit for these observations, and for the 

 conclusions drawn from them, is given to the Italian writer, who 

 of all men had done his utmost to discredit these observations and 

 conclusions when they were expressed by myself. 



At the time of publication of "Die Tyrrhenis," the most recent 

 continental deposits known to contain remains of Prolagiis were the 

 lignites of Casino in Tuscany. I therefore looked towards that 

 geological period for a presumed connection of Corsica with con- 

 tinental Europe. " On European soil the Myolagus (= Prolagus) 

 existed last as a contemporary of the Mipparion (Casino) ; at that 

 period, therefore, there may have still been in existence a connection 

 between Corsica and the Italian Peninsula."* 



Next came Deperet's discoveries, in the Middle Pliocene of 

 Perpignan (Koussillon), of abundant remains of a Prolagus, which 

 the writer considered indistinguishable from the Corsican form.^ 

 This observation led to his ingenious hypothesis of an isthmus 

 uniting the crystalline formations of Western Corsica with those of 

 the Maures (Southern France) ; an isthmus whicb separated two 

 regions of the Pliocene Mediterranean, distinguished from each 

 other by a difference in their respective molluscan faunas. " C'est 

 par cet isthme que les animaux pliocenes du continent ont pu 

 emigrer sur la terre de Corse et s'y perpetuer plus longtemps 

 meme que sur le continent, j usque dans les temps pleistocenes. II 

 n'est par impossible meme, etant donne la presence en Corse 

 d'especes actuelles de mammiferes et de I'homme, que cette com- 

 munication se soit maintenue jusqu'a une epoque assez recente."^ 



I had myself hinted ' at the possibility of a union in the direction 

 advocated by Deperet ; I do not see, however, that a connection 

 with Italy in an anterior period is excluded by Deperet's 

 arguments.^ The Pliocene sea in the region between Corsica and 

 Tuscany, attested inter alia by the marine deposits of the island 

 Pianosa, was posterior to the Casino horizon, which coincided with, 



» Bull. Soc. Malacol. Ital., toI. ix, pp. 224-230 (1883). 



* C. De Stefani, " Nouvelles Observations geol. sur I'ile de Sardaigne": C. E. 

 Paris, vol. cxiii, p. 607 (1891). 



* A. de Lapparent, " Traite de Geologie," S""^ ed., p. 1540 (1893) ; 4«>^ ed., 

 pp. 1804, 1805 (1900). 



* "Die Tyrrhenis . . . . " : Kosraos, vol. vii, p. 106 (1883). 



® Ch. Deperet, "Les Animaux Pliocenes du Koussillon": Mem. Soc. geol. 

 France; Paleontologie, Mem. No. 3, pp. 56, 122 (1890). 



* Ch. Deperet, "Etude de quelques gisements nouveaux de Vertebres Pleistocenes 

 de rile de Corse " : Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon, vol. xliv, pp. 125, 126 (1897). 



' Kosmos, vol. vii, p. 105. 

 « Op. cit., pp. 125, 128. 



