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TPEE GEOLOGIST. 



that of the grotto of San Teodoro, contains, according to Lartet, the relics 

 of the spotted hyaena, bear ( Ursus arctos ?), wolf, fox, porcupine, rabbit, 

 Elephas antiquus ? , E. Africanus?, hippopotamus (one or two species), 

 Sus (probably Sus scrofa, similar to the North African), ass ?, oxen (two 

 forms), deer (one or two species), sheep (or a similar animal), a large toad, 

 and a bird. A recent letter of M. Anca confirms the appearance of El&plias 

 Africanus in this grotto ; whilst E. antiquus belongs to another stratum. 



Thus we have close to species of European types, — as, for instance, the 

 deer and the bear, which are strangers to Southern and Eastern Africa, 

 and of which even Morocco and Algiers possess but a few representatives 

 (perhaps only fossil bears in caverns), — a few of those animals which at 

 present do not overstep the dominions of the desert, namely the African 

 elephant and the hippopotamus ; and with these, not the striped hysena, 

 which lives in Northern Africa and Upper India, but the spotted hyaena, 

 the home of which is South and West Africa, the territory of the Nile, and 

 Abyssinia. The Sicilian caverns show, also, a contact of South-European 

 with true African types, which, owing to the interference of the Sahara, 

 cannot be anywhere seen at this time. 



These facts acquire the more importance when we add, that similar 

 points of contact can be shown in Spain, from the period when the most 

 prominent types of both faunas first existed. Moreover, it ought not to be 

 overlooked that Cuvier searched for the nearest representatives of our di- 

 luvial fauna in Southern Africa, and even at the Cape ; and that the 

 fauna of Pikermi and Battavar, rich in antelopes, bears a distinct African 

 character. 



It cannot be stated at the present time, even conjecturally, in what way 

 and through what causes the disappearance from Europe of the many groups 

 of existing African forms, so long indigenous over our part of the world, was 

 effected. M. Anca tells us, that even during the existence of the present 

 faunas, there was a connection ; and, as a first hint of such a connection, we 

 have to fix our attention upon the submarine ridgereachingfrom Sicily to the 

 opposite African coast, and which, Admiral Smyth states, encompasses the 

 extensive plateaux of the " Adventure-bank," and the Skirki cliffs, which 

 seem to be the submerged area of Yirgil. 



But, although the order of events which caused these changes appears 

 as yet very obscure, we are nevertheless able already to distinguish amongst 

 the present population of Europe, not only a number of certain indepen- 

 dent groups of organic forms from which that present population of Europe 

 has originated, but also to indicate the succession in which they appeared. 

 The first group, still discernible, is that which we shall call the African ; 

 it was completely displaced long ago, and its last vestiges in Europe are 

 shown to us by M. Anca. The second is the Northern group, the remains 

 of which are still living on our high mountains, forming a higher zone 

 above two others which occupy lower levels. These lower groups are, on 

 the one hand, the western fauna, which we term the Lusitanian, the re- 

 cognized types of which are the forms common to Northern Africa and 

 Europe ; on the other hand, the eastern fauna, which we may perhaps 

 call the Asiatic, and which is subdivided into many members dependent 

 on physical differences, — as, for instance, those which exist between the 

 Caspian steppes and Asia Minor. 



It is not our purpose to show here the relation of the various zones of 

 special faunas in the European Seas ; but we are bound to observe that 

 the mollusca quoted above as being common to Vienna and Sencgambia, 

 as the Trigonia anatinaymust have once undoubtedly inhabited some part 

 of the present Mediterranean Sea eastwards of Sicily ; and that they became 



