112 Transactions. 



evidence of a dynamical nature that can be advanced to support the theory 

 of a former land connection of New Zealand and New Caledonia with Lord 

 Howe Island; but it has been many times pointed out that the relation- 

 ships of the animals and plants of this island can best be explained by 

 assuming such a connection. 



As to the age of Lord Howe Island its geological characteristics yield 

 little evidence, but the nature of the fauna and flora indubitably proves 

 that the island has been above the surface of the ocean ever since there 

 was a direct land connection between it and New Caledonia. Thus the 

 Lord Howe Island volcano was in existence before the land bridge joining 

 New Zealand and New Caledonia finally disappeared. Mr. Speight tells 

 me that my specimens of rocks from Mount Gower are not likely to date 

 before the commencement of the Tertiary era. But early Tertiary gives 

 ample time for the subsidence of the ocean-floor to its present depth. 



The more recent geological history of Lord Howe Island throws little 

 light on the present subject. Briefly it is as follows : A long period of 

 quiescence following on the building-up of the Lord Howe Island volcano 

 resulted in it being denuded by sea-action to the fragments represented 

 by the two remarkable mountains Gower and Lidgbird, and the pinnacle 

 of Balls Pyramid. A revival of thermal activity next resulted in the 

 building-up of three small volcanic hills, which, except at the extreme 

 north-west portion of the island, have not suffered much from the effects 

 of marine denudation. In point of fact, certain conditions which I am 

 unable to explain, but no doubt coincident with subsidence of the area, 

 allowed the deposition of limestone beds in shallow water. The area has 

 since risen, exposing these beds for perhaps 30 m. above sea-level, this 

 being the last vertical movement of the land in this region of which there 

 is evidence. 



Land Connection with Lord Howe Island. 



The. idea of a land connection to explain the origin of the fauna and 

 flora of Lord Howe Island has been supported by practically all scientific 

 Avriters who have dealt with the subject. 



Moore [Trans. Roy. Soc. N.S.W., 1871, p. 29). after discussing the 

 geographical relationships of the plants, concludes, " I am constrained to 

 adopt . . . that this island, Norfolk Island, New Zealand, New Cale- 

 donia, and the islands of the Western Pacific formed at one time either a 

 portion of this or another vast continent." 



Wallace (Island Life, p. 455, 1880), in discussing the New Zealand fauna, 

 states that the Bampton Shoal, west of New Caledonia, and Lord Howe 

 Island, farther south, probably formed the western limits of an extensive 

 land in which were developed the great wingless birds and other isolated 

 members of the New Zealand fauna. 



Hedley (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., vol. 7, p. 338, 1893) argues for "the 

 essential unity of the Placostylas area as a zoological province, embracing 

 the archipelagoes of Solomon, Fiji, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Lord 

 Howe, and New Zealand — a unity explicable only on the theory that they 

 form portions of a shattered continent. . . . This Melanesian plateau 

 was never connected with, nor populated from, Australia ; probably its 

 fauna was derived from Papua, via New Britain." Again (Proc. Linn. Soc. 

 N.S.W., vol. 24, p. 397, 1899), in discussing the migration of Pacific faunas, 

 he places Lord Howe Island in the continental area connecting New Zealand 



