396 A ZOOGEOGRAPHIC SCHEME FOR THE MID-PACIFIC, 



east of Queensland. This fauna is not concerned in the zoology 

 of the Pacific. 



The second oldest Australian element is that called by Tate 

 the Euronotian, and by Spencer the Bassian. It is the most 

 characteristic Australian element, and consists of a rich fauna of 

 Antarctic origin, which entering by Tasmania, overran the whole 

 continent, crossed Torres Straits into New Guinea, and reached its 

 utmost eastern limit in the Solomons. Characteristic members 

 of it are the marsupials, monotremes, cystignathous frogs, 

 venomous snakes, and snails of the Order Macroogna.* 



The third and youngest Australian element, which has been called 

 by Spencer the Torresian, was first noted by myself in 1892, when 

 describing the irruption of Papuan Mollusca into Queensland;! a 

 ■description which has been without acknowledgment appropriated 

 b\' A. H. Cooke. J 



Along the whole east coast of Queensland a strong colony uf 

 Papuan fauna and flora is established. Among plants the wild 

 ])anana, pepper, orange, and mangosteen, rhododendi'on, ephiphytic 

 orchids, and the palms, among mammals, the bats and mice; 

 among birds, the cassowary and rifle birds; among reptiles, the 

 Ratia or true frog, the crocodile, and the tree snakes; among 

 butterflies, the OrnithojJtera; and among mollusca, the operculate 

 snails and the genus Papuina, characterise this element. So 

 much is this so, that in the heart of a great Queensland "scrub," 

 a naturalist could hardly answer from his surroundings whether 

 he were in New Guinea or Australia. 



Among recent writers, Haddon has shown that the islands of 

 Torres Straits are the denuded remnants of a former extension of 

 the Cape York Peninsula.§ A slight elevation of less than ten 

 fathoms would now serve to connect the opposite shores of the 

 .Straits, and it is evident that it was by this route that the Papuan 



* Hedley— Pruc. Koy. Soc. N.S.W. xxix. 1895 (1896), pp. 278-286. 



t Hedley— Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (2) vi. 1891 (1892), p. 694. 



t Cooke— Canib. Nat. Hist, ii., Mollusca, 1895, p. 322. 



§ Haddon, Sollas and Cole— Trans. Roy. Irish Acad. xxx. 1894. 



