446 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 



Seeing that many resemblances exist between our vegetation and 

 that of Timor and the south-east Austro-Malayan islands, perhaps 

 these lands afforded the passage to Australia. 



Summary. — Superimposed one above another may be dis- 

 tinguished three divisions of Australian life. The earliest is the 

 Autochthnnian. Possibly this arrived from the Austro-Malavan 

 islands in or before the Cretaceous era, and spread over the whole 

 ot Australia The next is the Eurnnotian. Probably this reached 

 Tasmania from South America not later than the Miocene epoch ; 

 many of the original inhabitants, particularly on the east coast, 

 probably disappeared before the invaders. Thirdly, a contingent 

 of Papuan forms seized on the Queensland coast late in the Tertiary, 

 and likewise largely exterminated their predecessors. 



11.— IMPORTANCE OF ASCERTAINING DISTRIBUTION 

 OF AUSTRALIAN FAUNA. 



By the Rev. TIIOS. BLACKBUEX, B.A. 



The subject that I have the honor to bring before the section 

 for discussion to-day is, I venture to believe, second in importance 

 to no subject whatever in natural history. It is the subject of 

 the determination of the geographical distribution in Australia 

 of the various natural objects that form the fauna of that region. 

 What I am anxious to impress upon as many persons as possible 

 is that it is a matter of urgent importance — that no weaker term 

 will fitly characterise the need — to name and describe every item 

 in the Australasian fauna, and place on permanent record the exact 

 locality in which each species of the fauna is indigenous. I 

 shall endeavor to establish the urgency of this matter on two 

 independent grounds — on the ground of its importance as a con- 

 tribution to science, and on the ground of its practical importance. 

 'J'o appreciate it as a factor in scientific knowledge it is necessary 

 to place before the mind the ultimate aim of scientific work, which 

 I take to be the discovery of the reason or reasons why everything 

 in nature is as it; is. This is a generalisation on which, I venture 

 to think, we at present know nothing at all on scientific evidence. 

 Innumerable instances will occiir to the recollection of every 

 student of science of facts in his own department of work which 

 are to him facts and nothing more. I will illustrate this state of 

 things from the small area in the field of investigation (small in 

 relation to the whole — vast in relation to the possibilities of in- 

 dividual discovery), the small area in which I myself am working 

 — viz., the Coleojjtera of Australia. Now, the Coleopterous fauna 

 of Australia, so far as we know, has distinctive chai-acters as com- 



