280 Proceedings, of the lloyal Irhh Academy. 



the Teni-ecs of Madagascar, in wHch island probably many of the older 

 forms are still preserved wMch. have become extinct on the neighbouring 

 Continent. Thus the f aunal approximation between Madagascar and 

 South America is frequently more apparent than that between the 

 latter and the continent of Africa. 



The intimate affinity which existed in early Tertiary times between 

 the mammalian fauna of "Western Europe and that of the i^ew "World 

 is especially marked among the Camivores. The genus Symiodon, 

 for instance, "which is confined to Xorth America and "Western 

 Europe, lived in both continents from Eocene to Miocene times. 

 Stetiogale, one of the Mustelidae, represented by five species in the 

 Eocene and Miocene deposits of France and Germany, turns up again 

 in the Miocene strata of Xorth America. Among the Canidse, 

 Galecynus is fouud in the Miocene of I^orth America and Switzerland; 

 ■while TJtous, -which is still living in South America at present and 

 has never been met ■with in ]S"orth America, inhabited France in 

 Pliocene times. Some Eelida^ also exhibit a similar rano'e. Thus 

 JEusmilus occurs in the Miocene of France and ^Xorth America • and 

 the sabre-toothed tiger, 2lac]mrodus, ■which roamed over central and 

 fiouthem Eui'ope from Eocene until Pliocene times, spread eastward 

 into India, and also right across to North and South America 

 (Smilodon). 



Some of these cases, no doubt, can be accounted for by the suppo- 

 sition that the mammals migrated from or to Europe across Asia 

 ■where they may have found a land-connection joining that continent 

 to America across Bering Strait ; but others seem to me to have used a 

 more direct route bet-ween our continent and the IS'ew "World. 



Messrs. Sclater recognize a distinct division of the marine area of 

 the globe as consisting of the middle portion of the Atlantic which 

 they call '' Mesatlantis '' (p. 208). TVo genera of mammals ai'e 

 assigned as chai-acteristic of this region— viz., Monachus, the Monk 

 Seal, and the Sirenian Mano.tus. Xo-w neither of these animals frequent 

 the open ocean, being bound to the proximity of land. Monachus 

 albiventcr inhabits the Mediterranean, and the closelv allied If. 

 tropicalis the "West Indies, separated by the enormous expanse of the 

 Atlantic Ocean, -where no Monachus is kno^wn to exist. Manatus 

 is stiU more permanently attached to the coast. One species 

 Manatus inunyiiis, has even forsaken the sea, and no-w lives only in 

 fresh -water. Of the two other species, Manatus seuegalensis inhabits 

 the coasts and estuaries of "West Africa, M. americanus being found 

 ^long the South American coast and among the "West Indian islands. 



