xliv PKOCEEDINGS OP THE 



suited to the climate. These forms correspond to the climate of 

 the present day — as everywhere else, so also from the Malayan con- 

 tinent to the South-Sea Islands. If we assume that in an earlier 

 geological period the eastern portion of the archipelago did not yet 

 possess its mountains, and was connected with Australia, so might 

 the Australian climate have then extended to the archipelago ; but 

 with the change in the climate the vegetation of the time must have 

 disappeared. A new flora arose ; but in the fauna, which was less 

 dependent on climate, the earlier types may have longer persisted. 

 Perhaps the present period may be regarded as one in which the 

 Australian forms of animals are in an expiring state, because the 

 jungle-forests do not sufficiently correspond to their demands for 

 food. It would appear as if creative activity only wakes up at 

 specific points of time on specific points of the earth's surface, and 

 that during the long pauses Nature's struggles are directed only to 

 the retaining that which exists. Vegetation, as well as the animals 

 which it feeds, must ever be considered in relation to the geological 

 developments. During the time which has elapsed since the moun- 

 tains and the moist climate of New Guinea have been established 

 no new creation of Mammalia has taken place. Only very few 

 Marsupials, and scarcely any other Mammalia, have been found on 

 this great island. But in other classes of animals forms have arisen 

 corresponding to the present vegetation, such as the Birds of Para- 

 dise, which are unknown in Australia, but which in New Guinea 

 hover over the forest tree-tops, whilst they can take shelter from 

 the midday sun under the dense foliage. . . . The present type of 

 organization was already cast in New Holland in the tertiary period, 

 whilst the endemic plants and animals of New Guinea appear to be 

 of much later origin." (Vol. ii. pp. 69, 70.) 



"Without admitting to its fullest extent the main fact relied upon, 

 that there is no marked line separating the vegetation of the western 

 and the eastern . portions of the archipelago corresponding to that 

 laid down by Wallace for animals, a premature conclusion in the 

 present state of our knowledge*, and still less entering into specu- 

 lations as to the intermittent action of creative forces which I do 

 not quite comprehend, we must agree with Grisebach that, so far 

 as shown by the scanty data at our command, the uniformity is 

 much greater in the botany than in the zoology of the whole 

 archipelago. We may also admit with him that this comparative 

 uniformity may be, in great measure, due to the uniformity of 



* Dr. Hooker has, for instance, remarked that no Dipterocarpese have been 

 found to the east of Borneo. 



