INTRODUCTION, 13 



nection we must remember the outliers of the Iguanida found in 

 Fiji and in Madagascar. 



The Australian Neo-tropical element is therefore much more 

 considerable than that of New Zealand, and is chiefly sub- 

 tropical ; while that of New Zealand is temperate. Also it should 

 be noticed that the Chilian and Patagonia fauna consists of two 

 parts (a) an older indigenous fauna, and (b] a later immigrant 

 fauna from the north. The Australian and New Zealand con- 

 nections are entirely with the older fauna. 



(2) The second important fact is the poverty of the present 

 Antarctic terrestrial fauna and flora. Only a small beetle, a 

 dipterous insect, and two or three species belonging to the Col- 

 lembola, as well as a few kinds of mosses and lichens, have been 

 found there : a striking contrast to the fauna and flora of similar 

 climates in the Arctic regions. 



Now, it is evident that the insects could not have been blown 

 or carried to where the mosses happened to be. Their ancestors 

 must have travelled to their present positions by land ; and, this 

 being so, we have two possible explanations to account for the 

 difference between Arctic and Antarctic floras and faunas : 



1. The mosses and insects may be survivals from a time 

 when no angiospermous plants were in existence, the land on 

 which they live having been isolated from other lands ever since. 

 This supposes them to be relics of the Jurassic period. 



2. The present fauna and flora may be the remains of a more 

 extensive flora and fauna which once inhabited the southern 

 regions, but which has been destroyed by a glacial epoch. In 

 this case it is necessary to explain how it is that we find such 

 remarkable floras on southern islands like Kerguelen, Macquarie, 

 and Hermite, not very far. north of the desolate regions of the 

 South Shetlands and Victoria Land. It is to be hoped that the 

 Antarctic explorations now going on will throw some light on this 

 question. 



DATE OF ISOLATION. 



In estimating the time or times when New Zealand was 

 connected with the mainland, we must first take into con- 

 sideration the great differences between its fauna and those of 

 Australia, South America, and South Africa. This shows de- 

 cisively that the period of connection was a very ancient one, 

 for New Zealand must have been isolated before the spread of 



