ON TIIE EXTINCT ANIMALS OF THE COLONIES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 253 
ON THE EXTINCT ANIMALS OF THE COLONIES 
OF GREAT BRITAIN.* * * § 
By Prof. RICHARD OWEN, C.B., F.R.S., &c. 
A T the conclusion of my student’s career at Paris, in the time 
of Baron Cuvier, my first application of that great teacher’s 
“Laws of Reconstruction of Extinct Animals from their Fossil 
Remains ” was to those of the British Isles, f of which study the 
results, as relating to the mammals, J birds, and reptiles, § have 
been published. 
I next turned my attention to the fossil evidences of these 
classes of animals in the Colonies of the Empire ; and I propose 
to submit to the Royal Colonial Institute, on the present occa- 
sion, the chief results in relation to the Cape of Good Hope, 
Australia, and New Zealand. 
Cape of Good Hope. 
My present notice of the evidences of extinct animals of the 
Cape of Good Hope will be limited to those of the Reptilian 
class, to which the South African crocodiles, tortoises, lizards, 
and toads are now the animals nearest akin. Of fossil remains 
of serpents I have received none ; nor are any of the fossil rep- 
tiles which have reached me from the Cape allied in genera, 
families, or even orders, to those now existing in the world. All 
the Cape subjects of my attempts at restoration are from what 
are commonly termed the “ Karoo beds,” covering an area of 
over 200,000 square miles, extending between latitudes 35° and 
33° 30' S. and longitudes 20° and 28° E. They overlie deposits 
* A paper read before the Royal Colonial Institute, May 6, 1879, and 
printed here by permission of the Author. 
t u Reports of the British Association,” vols. for 1839, 1841, 1842, 1843. 
f “History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds,” 8vo. 1846. (Van 
Voorst.) 
§ “ History of British Fossil Reptiles,” 4to. Parts I.-VI. 1849-55. 
(Published by the Author.) 
