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regarded as Newer Pliocene, but Dr. Scharff thinks it ought to be considered as of Inter-Glacial age and therefore Quaternary, and that this may have been the period of this North-Eastern Immigration. He contends that comparatively mild climatal conditions may have existed during the Glacial epoch in the North of Europe, very near to the glaciated region, as is now the case in New Zealand and Switzerland where grapes ripen near to the foot of great glaciers, and that these mild conditions would allow of an abundant fauna living then in the southern part of the British Islands.

The history of the spread of the European fauna suggests and opens many highly interesting questions on which much difference of opinion may legitimately arise, but the limits of this paper will not allow of my entering into these discussions. I must be content with having introduced the subject to the notice of the Victoria Institute, indicating its general scope, character and teachings, from which I think it will be seen that it at least offers a good example of the interdependence of different branches of natural knowledge.

DISCUSSION.

The discussion was opened by Sir HENRY H. HOWORTH, F.R.S., who dwelt upon the evidence of the former connection between the Iberian peninsula and the west of Ireland, as shown by the presence of several plant forms, such as the arbutus, two species of heaths of which the "Mediterranean heath" is abundant in Galway, and the Osmunda regalis-a magnificent fern which grows luxuriantly both at Killarney and in Donegal.

The SECRETARY, Professor HULL, F.R.S., after thanking the author for his paper, said,―There is an episode in the remarkable history of the European fauna, to which we have been listening, which I wish to advert to during this discussion. It has been only briefly alluded to by the author, because it is only indirectly connected with his subject; but from its unique character deserves special attention. I refer to the great migration of the Europasian animals into Africa, towards the close of the Pliocene periodresulting in the re-peopling of that vast continent by new races of

animals and the expulsion of the aborigines. The subject has been ably developed by Dr. Alfred Wallace and Dr. Sclater, but newer light has been thrown upon it by observations on the relations of land and sea which brought about (as I believe) the Glacial Epoch.

The Pliocene period, as Professor Lobley has stated, was remark. able for great earth movements, causing elevation of the land and sea bed over the Europasian area, and consequent lowering of the climatic temperature. At the beginning of that period, Africa was isolated from Europe and Western Asia by a broad sheet of seawater—but as time went on land arose at intervals all along the Mediterranean from the Atlantic westward-and three causeways were formed as lines of communications between Southern Europe and Western Asia, converting the Mediterranean into a succession of lakes-unquestionably fresh-water lakes.

Now we have heard how Europe and Asia were inhabited by animals largely representative of those of the present day-namely, huge pachyderms, ruminants, and ferocious felines, such as the lions, leopards and hyenas, which had migrated from the Asiatic region, but their range was bounded by the Atlantic and Mediterranean waters. We have now to enquire, what were the races of animals inhabiting the adjoining continent of Africa at the same period? We have learned from the researches of the authors referred to that the predominant forms were those of the semi-apes, known as the Lemurs, which have given the name to a region including Madagascar; but the pachyderms, the felidæ, the ruminants and other forms then flourishing in the Europasian continent were absent from "the dark continent." However, the period and opportunity for a migration southwards into Africa gradually approached and was ultimately reached. Towards the close of the Pliocene period the three great causeways uniting the two continents above referred to arose from the ocean--one at Gibraltar Straits, the second between Sicily and Africa at Algiers, including Malta, and the third across the Isthmus of Suez. Impelled by the increasing cold of the approaching Post-pliocene or Glacial Epoch, those animals unable to endure the rigors of an Arctic climate instinctively bent their steps southwards; they crossed the causeways and entered the warm plains of Africa, driving before them the Lemurs and other humbler forms of animals, until they were exterminated or only found refuge in the Island of Madagascar-now separated by a deep gulf-but one

which owing to the rise of the land had become shallow, or perhaps obliterated.*

Such is, I believe, in brief the account of that great migration of Europasian animals into Africa, the progenitors of those now inhabiting that great continent; a migration of vast importance in the history of races, and recalling to our minds the successive migrations of the Asiatic tribes of men into Southern and Western Europe which are recorded in history, and of which we have heard so much from Mr. Rouse. It may not be considered inappropriate as an appendix to the able paper for which we have to thank Professor Lobley this evening.

Mr. ROUSE. Upon this instructive and fascinating paper allow

me to make two criticisms.

Firstly, the rabbit is not now in Great Britain through having crossed from Portugal or Spain in prehistoric times. We read in Murray's Historical English Dictionary, "The rabbit is evidently of late introduction into Britain and Northern Europe; it has no native name in Celtic or Teutonic, and there is no mention of it in England before the Norman period." Its original name in English and its present day name in German, cony and kaninchen, are both derived, as that work tells us, from the Latin cuniculus, which in turn is, "according to ancient authors, of Spanish origin." The earliest quotation that Murray can find for the creature of this name is in 1200, the earliest for rabbit in 1440, where in an English-Latin word-list it is interpreted, "yonge conye, cunicellus"; while Turberville in his Venerie (lxiii, 178) writes, "The Conie beareth her Rabettes xxx dayes." Moreover there was no direct land connection in the Tertiary on between Great Britain and Lusitania, but only between our island and North-Western France; beyond that, around the Bay of Biscay, and down the coast of Gallicia and Portugal, there was an extension of the land area about fifty miles out to sea, represented by the present sub-marine plateau; therefore any existing land animals that reached England from Lusitania overland

* Mr. Newton gives the fauna of Madagascar as consisting of 39 species of Lemuridæ, 25 of Chamelionidæ, 260 of birds, the Struthida (or great wingless birds) now in a fossil state, also three species of Hippopotamus, swine, and a slender-legged form of Zebu-ox (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, Feb., 1895).

must have settled and bred in France on the way; and, if none of their descendants are found in France, they could not have come overland, but must have been imported by ship; as the snake and the slug and the insects referred to might readily have been in the innumerable cargoes of fruit and vegetables, that have in the course of ages sailed from Spain to Britain, and the moles may possibly have been also.

Secondly, there is a confusion in the paper between the migration of fauna in the historic age, or say during the last 4,000 years, and its extension in an earlier age which must have possessed different characteristics, since rhinoceroses, hippopotami and hyenas then abounded in countries where they now cannot live; and since the relics of man associated with their remains show that the human race then possessed much greater strength than in historic times, and, as evidenced in the Old Man of Cromagnon, probably much greater longevity. I speak of course of the Paleolithic Age, which the late Sir William Dawson identified with the Antediluvian. In the later age it was needful that the land animals should all spread from Western Asia; and it is most interesting to hear from the lecturer an account of this spreading. But in the earlier age there was no such necessity; and we should naturally suppose that at their very creation they were dotted at various points over the earth's surface wherever there was the greatest sustenance for them.

The thanks of the meeting having been accorded to the author for his interesting and able paper the meeting separated.

ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.*

COLONEL T. HOLBEIN HENDLEY, C.I.E., IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed.

ELECTION :-Colonel C. E. Yate, C.S.I., C.M.G., Late Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan, was elected Associate.

The following paper was then read by the author :

ORISSA: A LITTLE KNOWN PROVINCE OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE. With some Personal Reminiscences, By C. W. ODLING, C.S.I., M.Inst.C.E.

IT

T is unlikely that many of those present this afternoon have visited Orissa; indeed, it is chiefly owing to so little being known about this unfrequented part of the Indian Empire that I have ventured to submit to this Institute some observations on the country and its people. Orissa lies on the sea coast, south-west of Calcutta; it stretches from the Subunreka River on the north to the Ganjam district of the Madras Presidency on the south, a distance of more than 200 miles; its capital town, Cuttack, is 250 miles distant from Calcutta. Ships on their way from Madras or Ceylon to Calcutta generally sight either the Black Pagoda or False Point Lighthouse, both of which are situated on the Orissa coast. In my time, 1865-1875, the official Orissa consisted of the three British districts of Balasore, Cuttack and Pooree, and of nineteen feudatory states, the whole having an area of 24,000 square miles, and a population of 6,290,952, according to the census of 1901. In the recent partition of Bengal another British district, Sambalpur, and some more feudatory

* Monday, March 4th, 1907.

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