THE MEDITEEKANEAN DUEINa THE PLEISTOCENE AGE. 163 
of the Straits of Gribraltar and of Malta and Sicily, so as to 
afford passage for the African mammalia into Europe, it would 
afford equal passage for the southern advance into Africa of 
some of the Em'opean mammalia. Evidence of this we meet 
with in the bone-cave of Mansourah, near Constantine, in 
Algeria, described by M. Bayle in 1854.* The animals which 
he obtained, consisting of the horse, ox, antelope, hippopotamus, 
and elephant, have been described by Professor Grervais.f An 
examination of his figure of a fragment of a molar tooth leaves 
no room for doubt that the Elejphas meridionalis was living 
in North Africa during the Pleistocene age ; that is to say, an 
extinct animal, the head-quarters of which are to be found in 
Italy, ranged as far south as Northern Africa. 
The former continuity of Africa by way of the Iberian 
peninsula and Sicily, may also be inferred by the distribution 
of the mammalia at the present time. Professor Grervais ob- 
serves that most of the insectivora are the same in Europe and 
North Africa. The genette and Fcetorius furo (ferret), the 
Mangou8taWiddringtoni{(jcmj), and the fallow-deer, are com- 
mon to Spain and Africa. The porcupine of Algeria belongs 
to the same species as that of Italy and Sicily, and the wild 
boar does not present any characters of importance by which 
it can be separated from that of Europe. From the present 
range, therefore, of the mammalia the same conclusion may be 
drawn as to the continuity of Africa with Europe, as is afforded 
by their distribution in the Pleistocene Age. 
These conclusions, derived from the study of the mammalia, 
are corroborated and supplemented by the evidence of the 
•soundings. As we enter the Straits of Gibraltar (PI. XCVII.) 
the Atlantic Ocean shallows, until between Tangiers and Tarifa 
it is not more than from 270 to 300 fathoms. Between Tarifa 
and Ceuta the sea measures from 300 to 400 f., and thence, 
in passing westwards, suddenly deepens to the extent of over 
, 1,500 f. An elevation of 400 f. would be quite sufficient 
to raise a barrier of land between Morocco and Spain, and 
to insulate the deep Mediterranean basin from the Atlantic. 
The soundings between Sicily and Tunis are 260 fathoms, be- 
tween the former place and Malta 55 f., between Malta and the 
; African mainland 344 f. An elevation of 400 f. would suffice 
therefore to connect Africa with Sicily, and to insulate the 
eastern from the western deep Mediterranean areas. To the 
, east of Sicily the soundings reveal a depth of over 2,000 
j * Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 2® Ser. t. xi. p. 340. 
t Gervais, Nouvelles Becherclies sur les Animaux vertebres vivants et 
J fossiles,” 4to, Paris, 1867-9, p. 88. 
! M 2 
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