Dec, 1893. SOME NEW BOOKS. 459 



physical features and of organic life hardly to be found in any <jf the 

 other divisions of the globe, Asia, perhaps, excepted. 



The most striking contrasts of geological structure are exhibited 

 by the coral islands of the Pacific, the active volcanoes of the Malay 

 Archipelago, and the ancient rocks of New Zealand and Tasmania. 

 The most opposite aspects of vegetation are presented by the 

 luxuriant forests of Borneo and New Guinea and the waterless plains 

 of Central Australia. In the Sunda Islands we have an abundance 

 of ail the higher and larger forms of mammalia ; while farther to the 

 east, in Australia and the Pacific Islands, the absence of all the 

 higher mammals is so marked as to distinguish these countries from 

 every other part of the world. When the land-surface is so com- 

 pletely broken up into islands we cannot expect to find any of 

 the more prominent geographical features which characterise large 

 continents. There are no great lakes, rivers, or mountain ranges. 

 The only land-area capable of supporting a great river is exceptionally 

 arid, yet the Murray of Eastern Australia will rank with the largest 

 European rivers, its basin having an area about equal to that of the 

 Dnieper. Mountains are numerous, and are much higher in the 

 islands than in Australia itself. In such remote localities as Sumatra, 

 Borneo, the Sandwich Islands, and New Zealand, there are 

 mountains which just fall short of 14,000 feet. In New Guinea they 

 probably exceed this altitude, if, as reported, the central range 

 situated close to the equator is snow-covered ; while in Australia 

 itself the most elevated point is little more than half as high. 



In studying the natural history of Australasia an accurate know- 

 ledge of the depths of the waters intervening between the several 

 islands is of considerable importance, and Dr. Wallace provides some 

 details which show that the depth of the seas is greatest near the 

 larger land-masses in this region as in most others. For instance, close 

 to the New Hebrides the soundings record 16,900 feet ; between Sydney 

 and New Zealand, 15,600 feet ; and a little to the south-east of New- 

 Guinea, 14,700 feet. There is a comparatively shallow sea round the 

 coasts of Australia itself, which gradually deepens, till at some 300 to 

 500 miles on the east, south, and west, the depth of 15,000 feet is 

 attained. The sea connecting Australia with New Guinea and the 

 Moluccas is rather shallow, with intervening basins of great depth. In 

 the Banda Sea the line records 12,000 feet, in the Celebes and Sooloo 

 Seas over 15,000 feet, and in the China Sea, west of Luzon, is a depth 

 of 12,600 feet. Further westward the sea shallows abruptly, so that 

 Borneo, Java, and Sumatra are connected with each other, and with 

 the Malay and Siamese peninsulas, by a submarine bank rarely 

 exceeding 200 or 300 feet in depth. 



There are some five or six races of mankind in the area : Malays, 

 Papuans, Australians, Polynesians, Tasmanians (now extinct), and 

 the Negritos. With regard to some of these Polynesians, Dr. Wallace 

 remarks that those inhabiting Samoa and the Marquesas are in no 

 respects inferior to the average European, either in their complexion, 

 physical beauty, or nobility of expression ; and he laments that 

 these higher tribes are all disappearing under the fatal contact of 

 our much-vaunted civilisation. To this we venture to add our own 

 regrets on the inevitable extermination of the fine race of Maories in 

 New Zealand. 



In the Zoology and Botany, Australia is characterised by posses- 

 sing a number of peculiar forms, as well as by the absence of many 

 which are common in almost every other part of the globe. The 



