Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 28.djvu/536

442 the sea between Tunis and these islands, of over two hundred fathoms, does not at all invalidate the conclusion that there was actually such an extent of land, since that is a region in which at the present time land is being elevated and depressed irregularly by the exertion of those forces which find vent in Vesuvius and Etna. The great depth, however, of no less than 1400 fathoms, which intervenes between Candia and the mainland of Tripoli, offers a difficulty to the view that the land has been sunk to that depth since Hippopotamus Pentlandi lived in that island, and it cannot be quoted in favour of the continuity of land in that direction rather than towards Europe. The interval of a depth of sea of not more than 500 fathoms between it and Greece seems to me to imply that the island has been an appanage of Europe; and this conclusion is considerably strengthened by the recent discovery of Hippopotamus Pentlandi at Megalopolis, by Dr. Rolleston. I have therefore, in the Map, adopted the 500 fathom line as roughly indicating the ancient sea-margin.

The absence of the peculiar fauna of the caves of Malta in those of Sicily implies that the two areas were insulated from each other during the time that the pigmy Elephants and giant Dormouse were living in the former, and the African Elephant in the latter; for if this had not been the case the two faunas would have been likely to be mingled in regions which are now so nearly alike in climatal conditions. It is very possible that they may belong to two different stages of the Pleistocene; but this point cannot be decided until the Pleistocene faunas of Greece, Africa, and Asia Minor have been carefully compared and classified. The Elephas antiquus of Sicily points to a connexion by land with Italy, just as the Elephas africanus does to a connexion with Africa.

The striped Hyæna of the South of France and the Hippopotamus are Pliocene animals which survived into the Pleistocene age, and do not necessarily imply a direct continuity with Africa at the latter age; and the Lion and the Panther are as likely to have been derived from Asia as from Africa, since they now live on both those continents. The Chamois and the Ibex are most probably of North-Asiatic extraction, since they enjoy a climate that is not offered by the North-African continent. Of the rest of the animals it can only be said that they were unknown in Europe before the beginning of the Pleistocene age. In the Map (p. 436) I have represented the geography of the Mediterranean as implied by these animals, and corroborated in a striking degree by the evidence of the soundings. The barrier of land along which the African animals passed, on the one hand, into Spain, and on the other into Italy, is represented by portions of the sea-bottom which still stand far above the bottom of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian basins; and the depth is far less between the Morea and Candia than between the latter and Africa. The effect of a mass of land stretching, with but a slight break at the Mediterranean area, from the range of the Atlas to the extreme north of Europe, must necessarily have tended to produce extremes of climate similar to those which we now witness in masses