Physical Geography. 267 



Musk-deer has only six. Of true Deer there are seven 

 species. 



Of Rodentia, there are Squirrels, Hares, Chinchillas, 

 and Beavers, and the hare-like rodents Lagomys cenin- 

 gensis and L. Meyeri. Six species of Carnivora have 

 been found of the genera Hycenodon, Amphicyon, 

 Potamotherium, Trochictis, and Galecynus. The 

 second of these is related to the Dog, the third to the 

 Otter, the fourth to the Weasel and Badger, and the 

 last unites some of the characters of the Dog and the 

 Civet cat. 



In the Swiss Miocene series the upper jaw of an 

 Ape was found in the lignite of Elgg, and named 

 Hylobates antiquus, by Lartet. It is most nearly 

 related to the Indian Gibbon. Besides this, two other 

 Apes are known in ground not far off, at Sausan and on 

 the Swabian Alp. They have been named Dryopithecus 

 Fontani, and Semnopithecus pentalicus, the former of 

 which equalled the Orang and the Chimpanzee in 

 stature, and appears to have come near the Gibbons, 

 while the latter belonged to the group of long-tailed 

 Indian monkeys. 1 



No one will suppose that the species described as 

 occurring in the Miocene rocks of Switzerland, repre- 

 sent more than a fragment of a much larger fauna 

 that inhabited that and other regions of the old 

 continent, of which our own area then formed part, 

 and it is impossible to believe that with a teem- 

 ing fauna in the- lands to the east and south, a 

 portion of it, now changed into the British Islands, 



1 This epitome of the Miocene fauna is condensed from * The 

 Primaeval World of Switzerland,' by Professor Heer, of the University 

 of Zurich, edited by James Heywood, M.A., F.R.S., a most interest- 

 ing book and worthily translated. 



