FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 



301 



datus over to Gibraltar is known. The Sorex Etruscus, otherwise an ex- 

 clusively Italian animal, is to be found in Algiers ; the fox, which is 

 lighter in Italy than in Germany, appears in Algiers as a still lighter va- 

 riety ; and it may be also worth mentioning, with respect to the reptiles, 

 which are less exposed to the influence of man, that the new 'Erpetology 

 of Algiers,' by Strauch, contains well-known South-European species, such 

 as Cistudo Europcea, Lacertaviridis, Tropidonotus natrix, Sana esculenta, 

 etc. ; and that animals like the Chamceleon Africanus appear also in Spain 

 and Sicily. With regard to the beetles, Erichson, having examined the 

 collections of Mor. Wagner, says: — "A number of species belong also 

 to the middle-European fauna ; a larger number extend over all the 

 coast-lands of the Mediterranean Sea, a few inclusive, but the most of them 

 exclusive of Egypt, which, in its fauna, exhibits more of the middle- 

 African characteristics. Most of the species possessed by Algiers are 

 identical with those of the opposite Italian islands, Sardinia and Sicily, 

 but less so with the mainland of Italy ; and the same is the case with the 

 Spanish peninsula and the opposite territory of Morocco ; whilst it is very 

 often the case that the Spanish- Morocco and the Italo-Algerian species 

 show (?) comparatively an analogy between themselves."* The like pheno- 

 mena are repeated in the land-snails. According to Forbes, the concor- 

 dance of the Morocco snails with those of Spain is so great, that even on 

 the heights the Spanish mountain-snails appear. The Glandina Algira is 

 to be found, in the smaller form, from the valley of Tsonzo to Constan- 

 tinople ; whilst the larger variety connects Lower Italy, Sicily, and Algiers. f 

 Other South-European species which seem to have originated from the 

 east, — as, for instance, the Cyclostoma elegans, — are, on the contrary, 

 wanting in Algeria ; whilst the Cyclostoma sulcatum appears in the Italian 

 islands, at Malta, in Southern France, South-eastern Spain, and also in 

 Northern Africa. It seems also that all the South-European river mussels 

 are to be found in Algiers.]; 



With regard to the vegetable kingdom, and in order not to multiply 

 excessively examples, it may suffice to record here the Chamaros Jiumilis, 

 and its scattering over the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. 



After all that it is not surprising that Andr. Wagner, supported by 

 another series of arguments, so far back as the year 1846 wrote : — " The 

 Mediterranean Sea, in a natural -history point of view, separates the north- 

 ern border of Africa in a far inferior degree from Europe, than it is on 

 the other hand separated by the Sahara from the principal stock of the 

 African continent. According to all accounts the Sahara was once over- 

 flowed by the sea, owing to which Barbary became one of the Mediterranean 

 islands. "§ 



The present land-fauna teaches us to consider the Canary Islands, Mo- 

 rocco, Algiers, and South-western Europe, as a formerly connected conti- 

 nent, which, according to Forbes, probably extended as far as Cornwall. 

 We call his fauna the Lusitanian fauna. We shall now proceed with M. 

 Anca's communications. 



In the year 1860, M. Anca made known || his discovery in some bone- 

 caverns in Sicily, of a quantity of determinable animal remains, which 

 were accompanied by land- and sea-shells of species still living in that 

 country, — as the Helix aspersa and the Cardium edule. The richest list, 



* Arch. f. Naturgesch. vii. Jahrg. 2 Bd. p. 153. 



f Marteur, Wiktemb. Jaliresh. xi. p. 244. \ Ibidem, pp. 249, 257. 



§ Transactions of the Royal Acad, of 8c. Bavaria, ii. cl. iv. vol. ii. sect. p. 11. 

 || Bull. Soc. Geol. p. 680. 



