Evening star., 1901-11-09
FOSSILS IN EGYPT.
Discoveries of Interest to GeOlOgists
and GeOgraphers.

Discoveries of Interest to GeoIogists
and GeOgraphers.
From the Pail Mall Gazette
We learn that discoveries of Eocene mann
mails of considerable scientific Importance
have been made in the Fayum as the result
of a collecting expedition organized by
Capt Lyons, director general Of the Egyp-
tian geological survey. At the request OF
Capt Lyons leave was granted by the au-
thorities of the British Museum to DR.. c.
W. Andrews of the department of geology
who happened to be in Cairo at the time, to
go on this expedition in company with Mr..
Beadnall, a member of the staff of the
Egyptian geological survey, who has sur
veyed and mapped the region of the Fayum.
In examining the escarpments of the upper
Eocene and Oligocene age southwark the
two explorers discovered a very rich deposit
from which they obtained an extensive col
lection of fossil remains. The specimens
were found along about thirty miles of the
eScarpment at various levels, and although
In many cases the bones were much cracked
and broken by the extremes of temperatures
to which they have been subjected, they ar
rived in very fair condition at the Natural
History Museum at South Kensington
where the collection has been sent in order
to be worked out and described by DIR.
Andrews. The more notable of the finds are
large linotheriumlike animal, generically
distinct from any known form; mastodon-
like animal, also new; the vertebral column
of a gigantic lizard, remains Of tortoises
and numerous bones of eotherium, an
aquatic vegetable-feeding mammal belong
ing to the order Sirenia, end very distinct
from the Cetacea.
All the specimens were obtained from beds
of upper Eocene, or in some cases from
lower Oligocene age, while the earliest Pro
boscidean previously known Is from the
lower Miocene. The greatest scientific inter-
est centers round the two first mentioned
specimens which DR.. Andrews believes are
probably remains of ancestral forms of the
dinotherium, the mastodon and the elephant
of the present day. These three forms, rep
resenting the Proboscidea (elephants) ex-
tend from the Miocene epoch to the present
time and are Of nearly worldwide distri-
button. save on the island continents of
Australia and New Guinea, and 1t Is worthy
Of note that, though they form we'll
marked suborder, distinct from other types
of hoofed animals, their direct ancestry has
up to the time of DR.. Andrews discovery
and determination Of his Fayum specimens
been unknown to palaeonthologists.
In his preliminary description of the
specimens, which appears In the Geological
Magazine, DR.. Andrews draws attention to
the Importance of further investigation OF
the tertiary deposits of the Lfbyan desert
as likely to throw great light on many
obscure questions Of geographical distribu-
ton by the probable discovery Of many
species, for 1t is certain that In the present
collection there is represented only a very
small fraction of the species which existed.
Another point Of Importance is that the
fauna described by Dr. Andrews differs en-
tirely from that found in deposits Of the
same age in Europe and points to the ex-
istence Of a large land area to the south
which had long been isolated. One long
standing problem-the place of origin of
the Proboscidea-may perhaps be regarded
as solved by these discoveries. Probably
it was not till a later period when the
dinotherium, the mastodon and the elephant
had been evolved, and when Africa and the
land to the north were Joined by land COM
munication, that these animals found their
way over an area extending from England.
France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy.
Greece, Samos, Persia, Armenia, India and
Ava to North and South America, in all Of
which localities remains Of mastodon and
rhor rtS