Of the Papuan Islands. 583 



to the dispersal of all terrestrial forms of life, the primary di- 

 visions of the earth should in the main serve for all terres- 

 trial organisms. Plowever various may be the effects of cli- 

 mate, however unequal the means of distribution, these will 

 never altogether obliterate the radical effects of long-continued 

 isolation ; and it is my firm conviction, that when the botany 

 and the entomology of New Guinea and the surrounding isl- 

 ands become as well known as are their mammals and birds, 

 these departments of nature will also plainly indicate the radi- 

 cal distinctions of the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan re- 

 gions of the great Malay Archipelago. 



