VERTEDRATA HITHERTO DISCOVERED IN SPAIN. 125 



terest, but extends to the scientific investigation of the present zoolo- 

 gical geography of this group. Whatever may be our opinion upon 

 the theory of the specific centres which individual organic forms may 

 have taken as their point of departure, it will always be of advantage 

 to the student to find in every locality the prehistoric ancestors of 

 its fauna ; to use the comparison of Lyell, the connexion between 

 the present and the fossil forms, particularly in the case of the 

 Mammalia, is the same as that between the different dialects which 

 proceed from one primitive language. It is no longer possible to 

 doubt that a great number of the present forms of animal life havo 

 been in existence since the beginning of the Quaternary formation, 

 and that there has been an almost insensible transition from the 

 fauna of that period to that of the present, it being nearly impos- 

 sible to differentiate the palaeontology of the two periods. This 

 opinion has been supported by Owen in his work on British Mam- 

 mals and Birds. 



From this point of view nothing can be more worthy of detailed 

 investigation than the rich bone-deposits of Old Castile, which 

 abound with remains of the present and immediately preceding 

 races, and from which upwards of five hundred thousand arrobas 

 (or quarters) of bones, some fossil, some recent, have been obtained 

 for commercial purposes only. Among these bones have been dis- 

 covered artificial objects, such as flint knives of the reindeer period, 

 polished axes, and objects of metal. 



The investigations in Spain are important when viewed with 

 reference to the subject of extinction of species, particularly those 

 that were contemporary with man in the period termed by Lubbock 

 Palceolithic, and which is marked by the existence of animals that 

 have since disajypeared. Taking, for example, the Urus (Bos primi- 

 genins), we have clear proofs of its having existed in the Peninsula 

 until a very recent period — among them a philological proof in the 

 name of Monsuri, applied to a small hill on the banks of the Tagus*. 

 It is also important to bear in mind that remains of the mammoth 

 have been found in various parts of Spain — in the caverns of the 

 Pyrenees, in the centre in Madrid, and in the south near the shores 

 of the Mediterranean, a position further south than Home, which 

 has generally been considered the southern limit of the tract in 

 in which the bones of this animal are found. The same may be said 

 of the Rhinoceros tichorhinus, which has, without doubt, been dis- 

 covered in two different places in the north of the Peninsula. 



To sum up the results of the investigations made among the fossil 

 Vertebrata in Spain, we may mention that they arc not represented 

 until we come to the Carboniferous formations (where wo have 

 found impressions of fishes having the tail hcterocercal), in coal- 

 shales in the province of Leon, together with many impressions 

 of ferns, which have been carefully studied f. Consequently no 



* See my ' Resena geologica de la provincia do Guadalajara,' Madrid, 

 1874. 



t Areitio, " Materiales para la flora fosil Espauola," Ann. de la Soe. Espaii. 

 de Hist. Nat. t, ii. 1873. 



