26 The Malay Archipelago. 



division of the earth to another, differing as essentially in 

 their animal life as Europe does from America. If we travel 

 from Java or Borneo to Celebes or the Moluccas, the differ- 

 ence is still more striking. In the first the forests abound in 

 monkeys of many kinds, wild-cats, deer, civets, and otters, and 

 numerous varieties of squirrels are constantly met with. In 

 the latter none of these occur ; but the prehensile-tailed Cus- 

 cus is almost the only terrestrial mammal seen, except wild 

 pigs, which are found in all tne islands, and deer (which have 

 probably been recently introduced) m Celebes and the Moluc- 

 cas, The birds which are most abundant in the Western Isl- 

 ands are woodpeckers, barbets, trogons, fruit-thrushes, and 

 leaf-thrushes : they are seen daily, and form the great ornitho- 

 logical features of the country. In the Eastern Islands these 

 are absolutely unknown, honey suckers and small lories being 

 the most common birds ; so that the naturalist feels himself 

 in a new world, and can hardly realize that he has passed from 

 the one region to the other in a few days without ever being 

 out of sight of laud. 



The inference that we must draw from these facts is un- 

 doubtedly, that the whole of the islands eastward beyond Java 

 and Borneo do essentially form a part of a former Australian 

 or Pacific continent, although some of them may never have 

 been actually joined to it. This continent must have been 

 broken up not only before the Western Islands were separa- 

 ted from Asia, but probably before the extreme south-eastern 

 portion of Asia was raised above the waters of the ocean ; 

 for a great part of the land of Borneo and Java is known 

 to be geologically of quite recent formation, while the very 

 great difference of species, and in many cases of genera also, 

 between the productions of the Eastern Malay Islands and 

 Australia, as well as the great depth of the sea now sepa- 

 rating them, all point to a comparatively long period of iso- 

 lation. 



It is interesting to observe among the islands themselves 

 how a shallow sea always intimates a recent land-connection. 

 The Aru Islands, Mysol, and Waigiou, as well as Jobie, agree 

 with New Guinea in their species of mammalia and birds 

 much more closely than they do with the Moluccas, and we 

 find that they are all united to New Guinea by a shallow sea. 



