880 EFFECT OF HASSIAN ISTHMUS UPON MARINE FAUNA, 



Kepublic Columbia. On the south, Victoria had access to a fauna 

 of the Indian Ocean, as Columbia has access to an Atlantic fauna 

 in the (rulf of Darien; on the south-east a fauna of the Tasman 

 Sea inhabited the Gippsland coast, as a Pacific fauna in the Gulf 

 of Panama occurs on the north-western shore of Columbia, The 

 Isthmus of Panama answers to the Bassian Isthmus. 



The marine fauna which extends from Melbourne along the 

 south coast of Australia, and which was early elaborated in the 

 neighbourhood of Adelaide by the researches first of G. F. Angas, 

 and then of R. Tate, I novv^ propose to distinguish as the 

 Adelaidean Fauna.*' The marine fauna of the east coast of 

 Tasmania, Gippsland, and New South Wales I propose to call 

 the Peronian Fauna, in allusion to the famous French naturalist 

 who sacrificed his life to his work on Australian zoology. 



To these names I might take this opportunity of adding the 

 Dampierian for the marine fauna which extends from Torres 

 Straits to Houtman's Abrolhos; and the Solanderian for the 

 marine fauna of the Queensland coast from Moreton Bay to 

 Torres Strait. 



Since the opening of Bass Strait considerable interchange has 

 no doubt taken place between the Peronian and Adelaidean 

 faunas. That no previous writer has observed its site as a faunal 

 boundary, indicates how the line of demarcation has become 

 obliterated. Possibly the prevalent westerly winds and con- 

 sequent currents in Bass Straits have retarded the spread of 

 Peronian forms, and accelerated the progress of the Adelaidean. 



Antarctic forms advancing north would split on the Tasmanian 

 wedge, and entering each region, supply an element common to 

 both. 



* " The Adelaidean, including the coast and watersheds of the colony of 

 South Australia," has already been proposed as a zoological subprovince of 

 Australia by Tenison- Woods ("On the Natural History of New South 

 Wales," Sydney, Government Printer, 1882, p. 49). His scheme is neither 

 natural nor well-defined, and has been overlooked by Tate, Spencer and 

 other writers on Australian zoogeography. The meaning I attach to 

 " Adelaidean " is not that of Tenison- Woods. 



