46 DISTRIBUTION OF SOUTHERN FAUNAS, 



existence of an Antarctic continent. According to the latest 

 maps the ocean south of Tasmania, and the Pacific below 45° S., 

 are considerably deeper than the Pacific between 10° and 30° S,, 

 and the answer in both cases is that this continent existed a very 

 long time ago. The answer to the second objection is that no 

 record has been preserved of the fauna and flora on the Antarctic 

 continent because of a change in climate, and in the Polynesian 

 Islands because the continent disappeared entirely below the sea, 

 the present volcanic and coral islands being merely outgrowths 

 on its submerged back. But the statement that no record exists 

 in the case of the Pacific continent is not quite correct, for the 

 Iguanas of Fiji can hardly be explained in any other way. 



The theory of a Mesozoic South Pacific continent not only 

 explains the origin of the Australian and S. American marsupials, 

 but also the almost simultaneous appearance of different Eutherian 

 mammals in North and South America. We must suppose that 

 this continent threw oif first New Zealand, then Australia, then 

 Chili, and finally disappeared under the waves. The reasons 

 why we must suppose New Zealand to have been at one time 

 attached to the continent are the existence in that country of 

 Sphenodon, Unio, and Astacidfe, none of which are found in truly 

 Oceanic islands*. At a later date, as I pointed out in my former 

 papers. New Zealand must have formed part of a large island 

 joined to New Caledonia, but not to Australia. This has lately 

 been called Antipodea by Dr. Forbes, and the Melanesian Plateau 

 by Mr. C. Hedley. Still later again, New Zealand must have 

 stretched south and obtained its Antarctic fauna and flora from 

 Patagonia through a number of islands. 



From a biological point of view I see no reason to object to this 

 theory. The objections are geological, and most geologists at the 

 present day would, I think, say that the doctrine of the persistence 



* It is also hardly possible to account for the distribution of frogs, slugs, 

 wingless and feebly flying insects, eartli-worms, inyriapods, and fresh 

 water animals generally, except by the supposition of land passage. 



