302 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
that of the grotto of San Teodoro, contains, according to Lartet, the relics 
of the spotted hysena, bear (Ursus arctos?), wolf, fox, porcupine, rabbit, 
Elejphas antiquus ?, E. Africanus ?, hippopotamus (one or two species), 
Sus (probably Siis 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 ElejpJias 
Africamis 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 hysena, 
the home of which is South and West Africa, the territory of tlie Nile, and 
Abyssinia. The Sicilian caverns show, ^Iso, 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 submarineridgereachingfrom Sicily to the 
opposite African coast, and which, Admiral Smyth states, encompasses the 
extensive plateaux of the " Adventure-bank," and the Skirki clifi's, which 
seem to be the submerged area of Virgil. 
But, although the order of events which caused these changes appears 
as yet very obscure, we are nevertheless able alread}" 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 phj'^sical 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 Senegambia, 
as the Trigonia anatina, must have once undoubtedly inhabited some part 
of the present Mediterranean Sea eastwards of Sicily ; and that they became 
