442 PEOCEEBINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 5, 



the sea between Tunis and these islands, of over two hundred 

 fathoms, does not at all invalidate the conclusion that there Avas 

 actually such an extent of land, since that is a region in which at 

 the present time land is being elevated and depressed irregularly by 

 the exertion of those forces which find vent in Yesuvius and Etna. 

 The great depth, however, of no less than 1400 fathoms, which 

 intervenes between Candia and the mainland of Tripoli, offers a 

 difficulty to the view that the land has been sunk to that depth 

 since Hippopotamus PentlancU lived in that island, and it can- 

 not be quoted in favour of the continuity of land in that direction 

 rather than towards Europe. The interval of a depth of sea of not 

 more than 500 fathoms between it and Greece seems to me to imply 

 that the island has been an appanage of Europe ; and this conclusion 

 is considerably strengthened by the recent discovery of Hippopotamus 

 PentlancU at Megalopolis, by Dr. RoUeston. I have therefore, in 

 the Map, adopted the 500 fathom line as roughly indicating the 

 ancient sea-margin. 



The absence of the peculiar fauna of the caves of Malta in 

 those of Sicily implies that the two areas were insulated from each 

 other during the time that the pigmy Elephants and giant Dormouse 

 were living in the former, and the African Elephant in the latter ; 

 for if this had not been the case the two faunas would have been 

 likely to be mingled in regions which are now so nearly alike in cli- 

 matal conditions. It is very possible that they may belong to two 

 diff'erent stages of the Pleistocene ; but this point cannot be decided 

 until the Pleistocene faunas of Greece, Africa, and Asia Minor have 

 been carefully compared and classified. The Elephas antiquus of 

 Sicily points to a connexion by land with Italy, just as the Elephas 

 africanus does to a connexion with Africa. 



The striped Hysena of the South of Prance and the Hippopotamus 

 are Pliocene animals which survived into the Pleistocene age, and 

 do not necessarily imply a direct continuity with Africa at the latter 

 age ; and the Lion and the Panther are as likely to have been de- 

 rived from Asia as from Africa, since they now live on both those 

 continents. The Chamois and the Ibex are most probably of North- 

 Asiatic extraction, since they enjoy a climate that is not oifered by 

 the North-African continent. Of the rest of the animals it can 

 only be said that they were unknown in Europe before the begin- 

 ning of the Pleistocene age. In the Map (p. 436) I have re- 

 presented the geography of the Mediterranean as implied by these 

 animals, and corroborated in a striking degree by the evidence of the 

 soundings. The barrier of land along which the African animals 

 passed, on the one hand, into Spain, and on the other into Italy, is 

 represented by portions of the sea-bottom which stUl stand far 

 above the bottom of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian basins ; and the depth 

 is far less between the Morea and Candia than between the latter 

 and Africa. The effect of a mass of land stretching, with but a slight 

 break at the Mediterranean area, from the range of the Atlas to the 

 extreme north of Europe, must necessarily have tended to produce 

 extremes of climate similar to those which we now witness in masses 



