THE AUSTRALIAN GREAT BARRIER REEF. 



137 



The deposits in the Darhng Downs that have yielded these rich treasures are referred by 

 Mr. De Vis to an epoch not later than early Pliocene.* 



The foregoing record of the remarkable interblending affinities of tlie Oueensland and the 

 New Zealand avi-fauna, whilst seemingly, at first sight, a digression from the subject of 



MAP SHOWING DEPTH OF SEA AROUND AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. (AFTER DR. A. R. WALLACE.) 



The light tint indicates a depth of less than 1,000 fathoms. 

 The dark tint indicates a depth of more than 1,000 fathoms. 



the Great Barrier Coral Reef, is fraught, in relation to it, with far-reaching significance. To 

 the author's mind, the moderate subsidence which brought about the separation between 



* Readers who have followed the line of argument developed in the later pages of this chapter, will doubtless be 



struck by the singular identity of the New Zealand native name for this recently extinct Struthious bird, " Moa," and 



the aboriginal title of the island in Torres Strait now called Banks' Island. The coincidence — it may be nothing 



more — is remarkable. 



T 



