418 
ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 
to bo due to the greater antiquity of the grasses and sedges, 
and he argues in favour of an ancient direct land connection, 
long since disappeared, on which the slow southward advance 
of these forms took place, the identical species having pre¬ 
served their specific characters throughout a long series of 
ages. This is precisely the conclusion I have come to in 
regard to many species of animals of very wide range, con¬ 
trary to the view generally held that most of such forms are 
to he regarded as human importations scattered throughout 
the world by commerce. 
I have mentioned on several occasions that California ex¬ 
tended considerably further westward in former times, and 
that the numerous little islands such as Guadalupe, Cerros, 
Santa Catalina, Santa Rosa and others are the visible remains 
of that ancient Pacific land belt. The fact that they are in¬ 
habited by fourteen species and varieties of reptiles and 
amphibians* not known from the mainland, suggests that the 
islands have been separated from the latter since at any rate 
pre-Glacial times. 
Now on the coast of Chile we have similar evidence of a 
westward extension of land in former times. The tiny deer 
known as the “ pudu ” occurs in Chile and Chiloe island. 
Its only near relative lives in Ecuador. The small mouse-like 
mammal Acodon brachyotis of Chiloe island and the Chonos 
archipelago is peculiar to these islands, and so are many other 
species of the lower groups of animals. There is, in fact, 
quite a considerable assemblage of animals and plants on 
these islands, indicating a former westward extension of the 
mainland. Even the far distant Juan Fernandez island, 
which lies five hundred miles from the mainland, possesses a 
peculiar species of humming-bird (Eustephanus fernan- 
densis) and no doubt other indigenous forms of 1 animal life. 
It is situated on the tract of the old land belt which I believe 
to have once extended from the west coast of southern Chile 
to south-western North America, and from there eastward 
to Europe (Fig. 14). In early Tertiary times already parts of 
this old land bridge had disappeared, so that Chile and south- 
* Denburgh, J. van, “ Reptiles and Amphibians of Pacific Coast 
Islands,” p. 4. 
