432 
ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 
Thus there appears to he a distinct faunistic affinity between 
southern South America as a whole, including the Falkland 
islands, and New Zealand, as well as South Africa and Mada¬ 
gascar. I have already alluded to Professor Bouvier’s * re¬ 
markable discovery of the Peripatus of Chile being more 
closely allied to that of South Africa than to those of the rest 
of South America, so that he now places the South African 
and Chilean species into the genus Opisthopatus, while all 
the rest remain in the old genus Peripatus. I have likewise 
drawn attention to the fact that the family of fresh-water cray¬ 
fishes Parastacidae occurs only in southern South America, the 
Australian region and Madagascar. Professor Kolbef argued 
long ago that the manifold faunistic affinities of South 
America and Madagascar were largely due to an immigration 
into the latter of American forms from the south by means 
of antarctic land connections. Lastly, there are relationships 
even among the marine forms of Patagonia and South Africa 
which seem to demand the existence of a former direct land 
connection between these areas, although Dr. Ashworth $ 
would join 'the latter to an Antarctic Continent. When the 
faunas of Madagascar and South Africa become better known, 
it will be possible to follow these clues with greater success. 
That these affinities are altogether of the nature of con¬ 
vergences, as some authorities would have us believe, is, I 
think, inadmissible. If they are due to the existence of 
former antarctic land connections, we may he sure that they 
are of very great antiquity, possibly far beyond the limits of 
the Tertiary Era. 
Stimulated largely by these zoogeographical problems, the 
antarctic regions have within recent years received a greater 
share of public attention than hitherto. Thus expeditions 
have been fitted out from Belgium, France, Germany, Eng¬ 
land and Scotland in order to endeavour to throw light on 
some of these mysteries. Interesting results in connection 
with the theories of a former land connection between 
South America and Madagascar were obtained, particularly 
by the Scottish Antarctic Expedition. Returning northward 
* Bouvier, E. L., “ Monographie des Onychophores,” pp. 64 — 65. 
t Kolbe, H. J., “ Zoogeographische Elements in Madagascar,” p. 173. 
X Ashworth, J. H., “ Arenicolidae of South Africa,” p. 23. 
