166 PROF. E. HULL, ON THE SPREAD OF EXISTING ANIMALS 
not, and would yield milk to the crew or to the favoured officers. 
So too, live rabbits and live pigeons might well have been carried 
as a store of fresh provision ; the idea would naturally occur to 
Carthaginians as it has to Englishmen and Spaniards in later ages. 
Still, it is conceivable that pigeons, which apparently can fly for 
several hundred miles at a stretch, may have flown thither in early 
ages through being blown out of their course, possibly resting on 
the rigging of passing ships by the way, as even small land birds 
have often been seen to do. 
Professor Logan Lobley, F.G.S.— This meeting has been highly 
interesting, both from the paper and the discussion. The opposed 
views of Dr. Russell Wallace and Dr. Scharff on the origin of the 
fauna of the Atlantic islands raises the important question of the 
permanence of ocean basins, which is affirmed by the former and 
denied by the latter. 
An intermediate view, it seems to me, will meet all scientific 
requirements. The permanence of ocean basins does not require 
the permanence of ocean areas, and is quite compatible with great 
extensions seawards of continental areas by elevations of 2,000 or 
even 2,500 fathoms. Thus the northern Atlantic islands might 
with such elevations be united with the neighbouring continents, 
while the deeper parts of the Atlantic Ocean would remain, though 
restricted somewhat, still a great oceanic area. 
Reply of the Author. 
Rising to reply, the author said, that whatever might be thought 
of the value of the paper, there could be no second opinion regarding 
the interest of the discussion. He was exceedingly gratified at the 
manner in which the paper had been received, and especially in 
having the support of so distinguished a geologist as Dr. Henry 
Woodward, for the conclusions he (the author) had arrived at 
regarding the former extension of the land of Western Europe, and 
of the river valleys traversing the Continental Platform to great 
depths below the surface of the ocean. The author could not but 
regret, on patriotic grounds, that the honour of the discovery of the 
“ gigantic Irish deer ” had to be transferred from the bogs of county 
Limerick to those of the Isle of Man ; but no doubt the statement 
