Of Celebes. 291 



Archipelago, and closely hemmed in on every side by islands 

 teeming with varied forms of life, its productions have yet a 

 surprising amount of individuality. While it is poor in the 

 actual number of its species, it is yet wonderfully rich in pecu- 

 liar forms ; many of which are singular or beautiful, and are 

 in some cases absolutely unique upon the globe. We behold 

 here the curious phenomenon of groups of insects changing 

 their outline in a similar manner when compared with those 

 of surrounding islands, suggesting some common cause which 

 never seems to have acted elsewhere in exactly the same way. 

 Celebes, therefore, presents us with a most striking example 

 of the interest that attaches to the study of the geographical 

 distribution of animals. We can see that their present dis- 

 tribution upon the globe is the result of all the more recent 

 changes the earth's surface has undergone ; and by a careful 

 study of the phenomena we are sometimes able to deduce ap- 

 proximately what those past changes must have been, in order 

 to produce the distribution we find to exist. In the compara- 

 tively simple case of the Timor group we were able to deduce 

 these changes with some approach to certainty. In the much 

 more compHcated case of Celebes, we can only indicate their 

 general nature, since we now see the result, not of any single 

 or recent change only, but of whole series of the later revolu- 

 tions which have resulted in the present distribution of land in 

 the eastern hemisphere. 



