342 Transactions of the South African Fhilosoi^hical Society. 



It is further admitted, especially on zoological evidence, that by that 

 time the direct connection between South Africa and Australia had 

 disappeared, but since the causes (erosion and subsidence) which led 

 to the excavation of the Indian Ocean must have acted gradually I 

 see nothing in the way of assuming that in Cretaceous times, or 

 perhaps even somewhat later, there were still such considerable 

 remnants of the ancient continent as to allow the interchange of 

 plant-types between Australia and South Africa. 



It may be desirable to quote some of Mr. Stanley Gardiner's 

 conclusions in full, especially as they throw also light on the former 

 northern connections of South Africa. (P. 317) : " The land-connec- 

 tion of South Africa and Madagascar with India can scarcely be dis- 

 puted, though its duration and the changes which have taken place 

 in it may legitimately be discussed. Parts of each continent would 

 appear to have remained continuously as land from the Carboni- 

 ferous to the present day, while the present land-connection between 

 India and South Africa through Persia and Arabia cannot have come 

 into existence before the Middle Tertiary period. Eemains of the 

 same land-fauna and flora from the Carboniferous to the Middle 

 Secondary period are found in both South Africa and India, and 

 must certainly be deemed to prove a land-connection, which can 

 only have extended along the Madagascar-Ceylon line. North-west 

 and south-west of this bridge were marine faunas quite distinct yet 

 recognisably of the same geological periods." 



(P. 318) : "In the Upper Secondary (in the Middle and Upper 

 Cretaceous), and even in the Lower Tertiary (Eocene), there was 

 sea covering the southern part of Europe and parts of North Africa 

 and Arabia, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Arabian Sea. 

 On either side of the line of connection between Madagascar and 

 India we find still distinct marine faunas in elevated submarine 

 deposits of the Upper Cretaceous period. This fact implies that 

 there was no connection of the oceans until the Eocene at least, 

 such as would have enabled the faunas of the two oceans to have 

 seriously intermingled — in other words, that the connection between 

 Madagascar and India continued up to the Eocene, though with 

 possibly one or two straits not sufficiently broad for the intermingling 

 of the two marine faunas, though serving to separate the land 

 organisms of the two regions. Africa would at this time have been 

 an island, and it probably continued to be so until the middle or 

 commencement of the Upper Tertiary, during which it had a wide 

 land-connection across the Eed Sea through Arabia to South Europe 

 to Asia, and so to North America and to India." 



(P. 318) : "Again we find elevations of late Secondary and Eocene 



