1006 HISTOEICAL GEOLOGY. 



Africa. An Ox of the period, the Aurochs, still lives under the protection 

 of the Russian Czar ; and another, Bison priscus, the Urus, was alive in the 

 time of the Romans. 



Kent's Hole, near Torquay, has afforded bones of the Mammoth, Bhinoceros {B. 

 tichorhinus) , Cave Bear, Cave Lion, Cave Hyena, Wolf, Fox, Irish Deer, Reindeer, 

 3Iachceroclus latidens, Horse, besides relics of Man in the form of flint implements; and 

 the Brisham Cave, in the same vicinity, in addition to flint implements, bones of the 

 Cave Bear, Brown Bear, Grizzly Bear {U. ferox), Elephant, Cave Hyena, Cave Lion, 

 Wolf, Fox, modern Horse, Reindeer, Goat, Irish Deer, Elk, modern Hare and Rabbit, 

 Wild Boar, Lagomys spelceus, Aurochs {Bos primigenius) , etc. 



In France, in the older caves, according to Lartet, the bones of the Mammoth pre- 

 dominate along with B. tichorhinus, the Gave Hyena and Lion, etc., and in the later (the 

 Reindeer epoch), those of the Beindeer. Remains of the Reindeer have been found on 

 the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. Elephas antiquus and Rhinoceros hemitoechus 

 with the Hyena, Horse, Elk, Wild Boar, Bos primigenius, occur as far south as Gibraltar 

 in the " Ossiferous fissures " of the Gibraltar Rock ; but JE. primigenius and B. tichorhinus 

 are unknown in Spain. 



On Sicily have been found, besides the Gibraltar species, remains of Hippopotamus 

 Bentlandi, H. major, and Elephas Africanus ; and on Malta, besides several of the species 

 of Sicily, a pigmy Elephant, 3' to 5' high, E. Melitensis Falc. ; with also the Bear, JJrsus 

 arctos, a species of Wolf, a Stag, and other kinds. These species of Sicily and Malta are 

 the evidence of a dry land connection with Africa, and probably across to Europe. 



Australian. 



In Australia, the living species are almost exclusively Marsupials ; and 

 they were Marsupials also in the Quaternary, but of different species. As 

 on the other continents, the moderns are dwarfs by the side of the ancient 

 species. The Quaternary Diprotodon (Fig. 1566) was as large as a Hippo- 

 potamus, and somewhat similar in habits, the skull alone being a yard long; 

 and Nototherium Mitchelli Owen, an herbivorous species, Avas as large as a 

 bullock ; one of the Kangaroos, a species of Macropus, had the size of a 

 Rhinoceros. 



From this review of Quaternary Mammals, it is apparent that the 

 characteristic species of each continent were mainly of the same type that 

 now characterizes it. Both in the Quaternary and at the present time, the 

 Orient is strikingly the continent of Carnivores ; North America, of Herbi- 

 vores ; South America, of Edentates ; Australia, of Marsupials. 



The facts sustain, moreover, the view that the period in which these 

 Mammals lived and thrived was one of warm climate. The species which 

 have been mentioned, with a very few exceptions noted below, must have 

 required a climate ranging between warm temperate on one side, and extreme 

 cold temperate on the other ; and this range belonged to the wide region from 

 middle Europe and Britain to northern Siberia, Avhere herds of Elephants, 

 hairy Rhinoceroses, and other Mammals found abundant vegetation for food, 

 and a good living place. If northern Siberia had then the mean temperature 

 now found in southern Scandinavia, or 40° E., instead of its present 5° E. to 

 10° E., central Europe would necessarily have been within the warm temperate 



