366 BRITISH MAMMALS 



have originated in North America from that basal stock of the 

 Mammalia not far removed from the Monotremes which gave 

 rise to the Marsupials, the primitive Carnivora, the Insectivores, 

 the Ungulates, and the Rodents. The earliest Primates, more 

 or less related to the modern Lemurs, seem in their origin not 

 to have been far from the Ungulates, Rodents, and Insectivores, 

 and indeed to have proceeded in their development on curiously 

 parallel lines with these groups, especially with the Ungulate and 

 Insectivorous Mammals. 



The appearance of lemurs in Europe (including Britain) 

 dates from the Earliest Eocene, and probably rapidly succeeded 

 their evolution in North America. It would seem, indeed, as 

 though at the commencement of the Tertiary Epoch there was 

 a continuous land connection between North America {via 

 Newfoundland, Iceland, and the Hebrides) with Britain.^ The 

 Lemuroids attained a remarkable development in France, and 

 from this part of West-central Europe the early Primates seem 

 to have spread across the Mediterranean Basin into Africa, and 

 possibly along the coasts of Arabia to India, Ceylon, and Malaysia. 

 Their development in North America (which was a remarkable 

 one) led seemingly to nothing. At that period North America 

 seems to have been cut off from South America, and so far as 

 is yet known no form of lemur ever reached South America. 

 Their development, in fact, so far as the future of monkeys and 

 man was concerned, seems to have been limited to Eurafrica. 

 Only a few straggling forms reached Tropical Asia, where they 

 have become highly specialised {Loris and Nycticebus). In 

 Africa, probably, the lemur developed first of all Into that type 

 of monkey which Is now associated exclusively with South 

 America, and which Is known as the Platyrrhlne.^ A trace of 



1 The nucleus of the British Islands — Ireland, Cornwall, Wales, and Northern 

 Scotland — appears, indeed, to have been, down to the Secondary Epoch, an 

 outpost of America. England was little more than the alluvium formed by 

 the washing down of the rocks of Cambria and Caledonia ; England, in fact, 

 is made up of the detritus of Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland. 



^ These South American monkeys differ from those of the Old World in 



