Branner — Fossil Remains of Mammals in Brazil. 137 



could withstand the long drouths that occasionally occur in the 

 interior of northeast Brazil. I was led to this conclusion when 

 I first visited the interior of Alagoas and Pernambuco in 1876. 

 I quote from Dr. J. W. Gregory's " Great Rift Valley " what 

 seems to be corroborative evidence that in Africa large animals 

 do perish as I have suggested :* " Here and there around a 

 water-hole we found acres of ground white with the bones of 

 rhinoceros and zebra, gazelle and antelope, jackal and hyena, 

 and among them we once observed the remains of a lion. All 

 the bones of the skeletons were there, and they were fresh and 

 ungnawed. The explanation is simple. The year before there 

 had been a drouth which had cleared both game and people 

 from the district. Those which did not migrate crowded 

 around the dwindling pools, and fought for the last drop of 

 water. These accumulations of bones were due, therefore, to 

 a drouth and not to a deluge." 



It is much to be desired that the fossil Pleistocene mammals 

 of Brazil be studied systematically. The work of Lund upon 

 the cave fauna of Brazil is classic, but no attempt has yet been 

 made to get together the material from the ancient watering 

 places of northeast Brazil, while the fragmentary collections in 

 the Museu Nacional and in the hands of the other scientific 

 organizations and of private individuals are undescribed and 

 unknown. The only publication that has been made upon 

 the subject is a paper by Dr. F. L. C. Burlamaqui published at 

 Rio de Janeiro in 1855 by the Sociedade Yellosiana entitled 

 " Eoticia acerca dos animaes de racas extinctas descobertos em 

 varios postos do Brasil." 



Stanford University, California, December 10, 1901. 



* The Great Rift Valley, by J. W. Gregory, London, 1896, pp. 268-269. 



