207 
in the coal field of Batan Island? the writer also found Operculine, 
although as yet no Orbitoides. 
The fact that Martin’s Orbitoides came from a marl, while these we 
are at present describing occur in a limestone, does not in the slightest 
degree prevent the inclosing beds from being contemporaneous although 
they may not be strictly homotaxial. 
The bearing of these facts upon the paleogeography, and consequently 
upon the distribution of the flora and fauna of these Islands, would seem 
to be exceedingly important. If it can be satisfactorily proved, and 
these facts appear to contribute something to that end, that the islands 
of this Archipelago are remnants of a former, more extensive, land mass 
which was connected with Formosa and Japan to the north and Borneo, 
Java, and the Malay Peninsula to the southwest, and even with Indo- 
China and India, much that is now problematical with regard to floral 
and faunal distribution in this region will have been solved. 
This highly interesting problem has been attacked by many naturalists, 
foremost among whom are R. A. Rolfe’ and A. R. Wallace.’ These 
authors have demonstrated the great and almost confusing mixture of 
Australian, Indian, Chinese, Formosan, and still more northern types 
of plants and animals, more particularly the latter, with the endemic 
forms of the Archipelago. These will not be detailed here, but we shall 
discuss the distribution and origin of some of these forms. 
Mr. Wallace gave two views as to the ancient geography of this 
Archipelago, one of which, expressed in 1876,'° maintains that the 
Islands are truly insular and voleanie and that the union with other 
Malayan Islands was not of such a nature or duration as to permit of 
any extended migration on the part of animals. Later, in 1902 in the 
third edition of Island Life,’! he gives expression to a second view as 
follows: 
It is evident that the Philippines once formed part of the great Malayan exten- 
sion of Asia, but that they were separated considerably earlier than Java and have 
since been greatly isolated and much broken up by volcanic disturbances; their 
species have for the most part become modified into distinct local forms, repre- 
sentative species often occurring in the different islands of the group. They have 
received a few Chinese types by the route already indicated, and a few Australian 
forms owing to their proximity to the Moluccas. Their comparative poverty in 
genera and species of the mammalia is perhaps due to the fact that they have been 
subjected to a great amount of submersion in recent times, greatly reducing their 
area and causing the extinction of a considerable portion of their fauna. 
*W. D. Smith: “The Coal Deposits of Batan Island,” Bull. Min. Bur. (1905), 
No. 5. 
*“R. A. Rolfe: “On the Flora of the Philippine Islands and Its Probable Deriva- 
tion.” Jour. of the Linnean Society, Botany (1884), 21, page? 
*A. R. Wallace: Island Life. 
A. R. Wallace: Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876), 1, 344. 
"A. R. Wallace: Jsland Life, 3d edition (1902), 389. 
