436 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



a very small percentage of the Irish, fauna can be due to an occasional 

 means of dispersal. But it will be well to examine the views on tbe 

 origin of tbe Irish fauna of the leading zoologists, botanists, and 

 geologists who have made the geographical distribution of animals and 

 plants their special study. 



Th^ Irish Fauna and Flora migrated to Ireland on Land. 



Few naturalists were more thoroughly acquaiuted with the British 

 terrestrial and marine fauna and flora than the late Prof. Edward Forbes. 

 His view (33 «, p. 65) on the subject is therefore of special importance : 

 " The greater part," he says, " of the terrestrial animals and flowering 

 plants now inhabiting the British Islands are members of specific 

 centres beyond their area, and have migrated to it over continuous 

 land before, during, or after the Glacial Period." Dr. Wallace 

 remarks in "Island Life" (89, p. 338): " AThen England became 

 continental, these (animals of Central Europe) entered our country ; 

 but sufficient time does not seem to have elapsed for the migration to 

 have been completed before subsidence again occun-ed, cutting off the 

 further influx of purely terrestrial animals, and leaving us without 

 the number of species which our favourable climate and varied surface 

 entitle us to." If we turn to Prof. Boyd Dawkins' works, we find 

 the following sentences bearing upon the point at issue (22<?, p. ii.) : 

 " The wild animals are of equal interest to the geologist, the archae- 

 ologist, and the historian; for they afford to the first a means of 

 classifying the deposits with which he has to deal, while in archse- 

 ology and history they bear a direct relation to the members and 

 civilisation of the human dwellers in the same region. They are also 

 valuable to the geographer and physicist, since the occurrence of the 

 same animals in islands as on the adjacent continent implies a con- 

 tinuity of land between them in former times." I have already 

 quoted Prof. Leith Adams in my note on the oi'igin of the Irish 

 fauna, and I would only reiterate the statement, that he agreed with 

 Prof. Dawkins' views on this subject. Speaking of the southern 

 fauna of Ireland, Mr. Carpenter remarks (16i, p. 218) : " The land- 

 tracts over which these distinctly Pyrenean and Mediterranean 

 animals had travelled to Ireland, were covered by the waters of the 

 sea, while early races of men were still able to ramble into Britain 

 over an isthmus where the waves of the Straits of Dover and the T^orth 

 Sea now roll." 



These are some of the opinions expressed by zoologists. As for 

 botanists, Mr. Watson is, pei-haps, the highest authority on the 



