1896.] Fossils and Fossilization. 995 
drainage of the higher land, a combination of conditions is 
provided by which a varied fauna may secure an approxi- 
mately complete representation in fossils. Such localities as 
those described by Captain Johnston in his Nyassaland are 
suggested. Hesays: “At the close of the dry season when the 
tall grass has been burnt down and there is little or no cover 
for the game to hide in, it is really a remarkable spectacle as 
seen from the deck of a steamer, to watch the great herds of 
big animals wandering over these savannahs in search of the 
young verdure springing up amid the charred stubble of the 
old grass. With an opera glass you may distinguish water- 
buck, gnu, buffalo, eland, pallah, reed-buck and zebra, and 
occasionally some dark blue-gray blobs, much larger than the 
other specks and forms which are in their vicinity, turn out to 
be elephants.” Again he says “ game in the shape of antelopes 
and buffaloes was evidently abundant, and no doubt was at- 
tracted to the vicinity of this brackish pool by the flakes of 
salt which remained on the soil when the water had evapora- 
ted; and the game in its turn was followed by hyenas, lions 
and vultures.” 
In geological time such localities would have afforded a rich 
commixture of fossil remains if the circumstances favorable 
for the deposition of a protecting stratum of earth existed. 
Yet in all instances the social relations of the animals have an 
importance, and those social relations are somewhat modified 
by the topography of the country they inhabit. The wide 
plains of south-eastern or subcentral Africa, with an unchecked 
communication for miles, numerous rivers and rich vegetation, 
* Such scenes described by Capt. Johnston are closely imitated in the picture, 
drawn by W. Boyd Dawkins, of the Bristol Channel in plistocene times, when it 
was a fertile plain ‘‘ supporting herds of reindeer, horses and bisons, many ele- 
phants and rhinoceroses, and now and then being traversed by a stray hippopot- 
amus, which would afford abundant prey to the lions, bears and hyenas inhabit- 
ing all the accessible caves, as well as to their enemy and destroyer, man.” See 
also Dr. E. Holub’s “Seven Years in S. Africa,” Vol. I, p. 267. 
5 See also East Africa and its Big Game by Sir John C. Willoughby, wherein 
he describes the open plain with buffalo, zebra, hartebeest, eland, rhinoceros, os- 
trich, Grant’s antelope.s teinbock and wart-hog scattered over iit, and in another 
place where he saw *‘ es ees lesser kudu; wild dogs; hyenas; cheetah, 
oS 
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