BY SYDNEY B. J. SKERTCHLY. 75 
suits my purpose. You may derive our stock from the 
ancestors of the few that extend beyond the continent into 
the further islands of the Region, if you hke—they are all 
polyprotodont, by the way, and so presumably of ancient 
lineage. But I confess they look more lke emigrants 
from Australia, than laggards in the great stream of immi- 
grants—and they seem sadly out of place in the moist 
forests I know so well. 
70. But our diprotodonts—our very own mammals— 
they are certainly of the soil, and now that Prot. King has 
shown us that they were originally placental mammals 
after all—that in their embryonic state they still show traces 
of placentation—my contention seems to be gathering shape. 
It turns out, too, that the despised Monotremes, the lowest 
of the low—have rather taken a down grade than remained 
in stolid indifference to advancement—for the baby Platypus 
has genuine teeth. I do not call this degeneration : I call 
it the acme of wisely directed Adaptation. So light seems 
to be breaking on this dark spot at last. 
le Europeans and Americans have been handicapped 
by early geographical training: they have been so accus- 
tomed to hear Australia called an island, and to see it tucked 
into the right-hand bottom corner of the map of Asia, 
that they unconsciously miss its continental magnitude. 
All travellers I have encountered have been amazed at the 
size of the Sunda islands, startled to find it takes half-a- 
day’s good steaming to run up the Gulf of Manila: and not 
one in a thousand realises that the Barrier Reef, which only 
spans part of Queensland’s coast, if shifted into the hemis- 
phere which calls the tune for evolutionists to play, would 
reach from London to Gibraltar, or from New York into 
Dakota. They still think of an island in the terms of 
Robinson Crusoe, and tell us Australia is too small, and so 
had not room for sufficient rivalry, to grow good placentals 
in her own soil. This view has always led to Australian 
problems being misunderstood. So let me say once and 
for all, that on the continent of Australia there is scope 
sufficient for the working out of any problem in distribution 
or specific development. 
