ILLUSTRATIVE OF NATURAL SELECTION. 199 



It is only since my return home, and since I have 

 been able to compare the productions of Celebes side 

 by side with those of the surrounding islands, that I 

 have been fully impressed with their peculiarity, and 

 the great interest that attaches to them. The plants 

 and the reptiles are still almost unknown ; and it is to 

 be hoped that some enterprising naturalist may soon 

 devote himself to their study. The geology of the 

 country would also be well worth exploring, and its 

 newer fossils would be of especial interest as eluci- 

 dating the changes which have led to its present ano- 

 malous condition. This island stands, as it were, upon 

 the boundary-line between two worlds. On one side is 

 that ancient Australian fauna, which preserves to the 

 present day the facies of an early geological epoch ; on 

 the other is the rich and varied fauna of Asia, which 

 seems to contain, in every class and order, the most 

 perfect and highly organised animals. Celebes has 

 relations to both, yet strictly belongs to neither : it 

 possesses characteristics which are altogether its own ; 

 and I am convinced that no single island upon the 

 globe would so well repay a careful and detailed re- 

 search into its past and present history. 



Concluding Remarks. 



In writing this essay it has been my object to show 

 how much may, under favourable circumstances, be 

 learnt by the study of what may be termed the external 

 physiology of a small group of animals, inhabiting a 

 limited district. This branch of natural history had 



