TIMOR ISLAND. 405 



Australia, and have been g-radiially peopled by the fauna 

 existing on eitiier flank, seems to be the most reasonable one. 

 At a subsequent period tlie land of North Australia and the 

 adjacent sea bottom may have been elevated, although in 

 more recent times the north coast of the continent seems to 

 have undergone a submergence. 



The island of Timor is 300 miles long and about 60 

 broad, and is traversed along its south-eastern shore by a 

 high mountain chain, barren on its upper part, and entirely 

 untropical in appearance; subsidiary ranges run outwards to 

 the north coast, in the valleys, and on the slopes of which, at 

 3000 feet elevation, Wallace tells us, excellent wheat and 

 potatoes are grown ; but the productive character of the 

 country is spoiled by the miserable system of cultivation 

 adopted by the natives, and the apathy of the Portuguese in 

 not opening up the country with roads. Wallace further 

 remarks that " Sheep do well on the mountains, and a 

 breed of hardy ])onies, in much repute all over the archi- 

 pelago, runs half wild, so that it appears as if this island, so 

 i)arren looking and devoid of the usual features of tropical 

 vegetation, were yet especially adapted to supply a variety of 

 ]n-oducts essential to Europeans." 



The Portuguese colony, of Avhich Dielli is the capital, is 

 situated at the north-east end of Timor, and the Dutch pos- 

 sessions are at the south-west, the chief town being Coepang. 



In the early part of the century the island was visited and 

 explored by the naturalist Robert Brown and other conti- 

 nental savans. Following them, Wallace spent four months 

 at the Portuguese colony in 1861, and, as was his custom, 

 collected largely, chiefly in the uplands of the interior, which 

 he describes as being bare, and, where not cultivated, sprinkled 

 with stunted eucalypts and other unluxuriant vegetation. 

 He also spent a short time at Coepang at the western end of 

 Timor, in the vicinity of which he found the vegetation 

 scanty, although he testifies to an abundance of the fine 

 " fan-leaved palms, JSorassusJlabelliformis," from the leaves 

 of which water-buckets are made. In 1883 Mr. H. O. 

 Forbes, a well-known botanist and naturalist, visited Dielli 

 and collected for six months at the eastern end of the island. 

 About 250 species of flowering plants were discovered by 

 Mr. Forbes, the total number of species now known from the 

 island being, according to Wallace, less than one thousand. 



I am not aware that naturalists have explored to any 

 extent the main chain of mountains flanking the south coast, 



