The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations ...

286 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part. hi.and west, we find, along with much that is peculiar, a number ofgenerashowing a decided Oriental, and others with an equallystrong South American affinity ; this latter more particularly showingitself among reptiles and insects. 2. All over Africa, but moreespecially in the east, we have abundance of large ungulates andfelines—antelopes, giraffes, buffaloes, elephants, and rhinoceroses,with lions, leopards, and hysenas, all of types now or recentlyfound in India and "Western Asia. 3. But we also have to notethe absence of a number of groups which abound in the abovenamedcountries, such as deer, bears, moles, and true pigs ; whilecamels and goats—characteristic of the desert regions just tothe north of the Ethiopian—are equally wanting. 4. There isa wonderful unity of type and want of speciality in the vastarea ofour first sub-region extending from Senegal across to theeast coast, and southward to the Zambezi; while West Africa andSouth Africa each abound in peculiar types. 5. We have theextraordinary fauna of Madagascar to account for, with itsevidentmain derivation from Africa, yet wanting all the largerand higher African forms ; its resemblances to Malaya and toSouth America ; and its wonderful assemblage of altogetherpeculiar types.Here we find a secure starting-point, for we are sure thatMadagascar must have been separated from Africa before theassemblage of large animals enumerated above, had enteredit. Now, it is a suggestive fact, that all these belong to typeswhich abounded in Europe and India about the Miocene period.It is also known, from the prevalence of Tertiary deposits overthe Sahara and much of Arabia, Persia, and Northern India,that during early Tertiary times a continuous sea from the Bayof Bengal to the British Isles completely cut off all land communicationbetween Central and Southern Africa on the oneside, and the great continent of the Eastern hemisphere on theother.When Africa was thus isolated, its fauna probably had acharacter somewhat analogous to that of South America at thesame period.Most of the higher types of mammalian life wereabsent, while lemurs, Edentates, and Insectivora took their place.At this period Madagascar was no doubt united with Africa,