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ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING 
WAS HELD IN THE ROOMS OF THE INSTITUTE, ON 
MONDAY, APRIL 6th, 1908. 
Colonel C. E. Yate, C.M.G., C.S.I., in the Chaik. 
The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed. 
Election : — Hamilton Bland, Esq., M.D., and the Reverend Edwin 
D. Kizer, were elected Associates. 
The following paper was then read : — 
THE AMERICAN FA UNA AND ITS ORIGIN. 
By Professor J. Logan Lobley, E.G.S., F.R.G.S. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Introduction .... .... .... .... .... .... 190 
Conspectus of the American Fauna .... .... .... .... .... 192 
The American Fauna compared with that of the Old World .... 199 
Fossil Vertebrate Fauna of America, Quaternary and Tertiary .... 209 
Former Land Connections, Atlantis, Antarctica, etc. .... .... 214 
Introduction. 
T HE American continent with its vast north and south 
extension and its complete isolation by water from all 
other lands presents a field for the observation of animal life of 
the greatest possible interest. 
In latitudinal extension America ranges through 130 degrees, 
from 75° N. to 55° S. latitude, a distance of 9,000 miles or more 
than the diameter of the globe, a much greater north and south 
extension than that of the entire Old World or eastern con- 
tinent, with all its austral insular adjuncts. Thus it extends 
