122 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



But the evidence for a land connection by way of the 

 Pacific does not by any means rest on the testimony of 

 marsupials and tortoises alone. Passing over certain 

 groups, it may be mentioned that the earthworms of 

 Australia and New Zealand are strangely like those of 

 Patagonia, and have no very near relatives in Africa ; 

 while an almost equally strong affinity is stated to exist 

 between the Patagonian and Polynesian land-slugs. Neither 

 of these groups of animals are fitted to withstand the cold 

 of high latitudes, and it is difficult to see how the members 

 of the second, at any rate, could have reached the two 

 areas by any other means than a direct land connection. 



Turning to the reports of the Funafuti boring, it appears 

 that this has been carried far below the limits of coral 

 life, and was still in coral limestone. So far, therefore, 

 the advocates of the theory that Polynesia is the remains 

 of a sunken continent have scored a great triumph ; and 

 although there is still the possibility that some of the 

 atolls in this vast area may prove to be perched on the 

 denuded summits of extinct submarine volcanoes, even 

 this would not interfere with the general conclusion. If 

 deeper borings should result in touching rocks more or 

 less similar to ordinary continental sedimentary deposits 

 or metamorphic crystallines, an even firmer basis would 

 be afforded to the hypothesis of subsidence which has 

 now received such striking confirmation. 



As the result of the boring, it appears, then, that there 

 is a possibility that the community between the South 

 American and Australasian faunas may admit of being 

 explained by means of a direct land connection between 

 the two areas at a comparatively recent geological date. 

 Even, however, if this explanation receive future support 

 and acceptation, there are, as in all similar cases, still 



