Reviews—Dr. R. F. Scharff’?s European Animals. 369 
claims that these African forms came to Spain in Miocene times he 
commits a double heresy, namely, that they remained unaltered since 
the Miocene and remained so in two separate regions. 
It ought to be clearly understood that no single living Mammalian 
species, ITyena striata not excepted, existed so far back as the Pliocene. 
Over and over again the well-established fact of the comparatively 
short duration of mammalian species is ignored by the author. For 
instance, on p. 221 we read: ‘‘ The mammalian fauna of the North 
African Tertiary deposits has by no means been exhaustively examined, 
yet an extremely rich osteological collection has been brought together 
from Algeria. It has been shown that several kinds of hippopotamus, 
the rhinoceros, lon, buffalo, horse, wild ass, several antelopes, a camel, 
and many of the species which had been discovered at Pikermi, in 
Greece, had likewise lived in North-West Africa in the past, and had 
even persisted there up to Pleistocene times.” 
The mention of the Pikermi fauna, of which nothing is said when 
discussing the ancient land surface across the Aigean Sea, is quite out 
of place here; that the species found at Pikermi persisted to Pleistocene 
times is erroneous, and apt to lead to endless confusion. The Algerian 
deposits referred to are mostly Pleistocene or even alluvial; there is 
a doubt im some instances whether Upper Pliocene Mammals have 
been mistaken for Pleistocene, or vice versd. 
Arctomys.— We agree with the author that the Alpine fauna—as 
well as the Alpine flora—is of pre-Glacial origin, and that during 
the height of the Glacial period the Alps were not devoid of organic 
life. A species of marmot (Arctomys) has been found in Upper 
Pliocene deposits of Auvergne. From its extreme rarity it seems. 
probable that the species did not live on the spot, but, like many of 
its extant relatives, was a dweller on mountains, and that its remains 
were only occasionally carried down by floods and entombed in 
lacustrine deposits. 
Our author comments on the different species of the genus as 
follows :—‘‘ Like the chamois the Alpine marmot (Arctomys marmotta) 
is disseminated over several other European mountain ranges besides 
the Alps, and there is some fossil evidence of its having spread into 
the plains in Pleistocene times . . . . The Russian marmot 
(Aretomys bobac) formerly invaded the North European plain, and has. 
since retreated to the eastern parts of our continent, whence it came. 
The Russian marmot is found right across Siberia as far as the Amur, 
and there are no less than ten other kinds of marmots in Asia. Asia 
is consequently the centre of distribution from which the marmots 
have radiated west and east, for five species have penetrated into 
Arctic North America. That this took place in pre-Glacial times is 
evidenced by the fact that one species is known from American 
Phocene deposits” (p. 189). 
We have just mentioned that a species is known also from European 
Phocene deposits; the genus may already have been with us long 
before the Upper Pliocene. The recent discovery in the Oligocene of 
North America of a genus nearly related to Arctomys suggests that the 
latter may have been evolved in that continent, and thence spread 
east and west. The genus having existed in Western Europe before 
DECADE Y.—VOL. IV.—NO. VIII. 24 
