ELEPHANTS. 193 



former communication may have existed, but it miist have been long before the last adj ustment of 

 the relations between land and earth. As Dr. Falconer well says, the range of low hills which 

 forms the sjoine of the Malay Peninsula, and which is separated by a narrow interval only from the 

 islands of the Archipelago, can be traced north, increasing in height and development till it joins 

 on with the Himmalayah. While Ceylon, as has been often remarked, presents all the physical 

 characters of being a severed portion of the distinct mountain-chain of the "Western Ghauts. With 

 certain exceptions, the mammalian fauna, as a general rule, confirms this view, as do also recent 

 investigations on the flora of the mountainous regions of the adjoining Indian Peninsida near to 

 its extremit}''. That a connexion formerly, and at no very remote jjcriod, existed between the 

 the Malay ArchijDelago and the continuous mainland, is clearly indicated by the species of large 

 Mammalia common to both.* In fact their fauna is the same. 



Such a former connexion recalls tlie consideration of the peculiarities of the fauna of Borneo 

 ali'eady partially discussed in speaking of the Great Carnivora, and the reader will remember that 

 I suggested the hypothesis that that island, in its alternations of submergence and elevation, may 

 have had its last submergence, previous to its elevation to its present state, arrested before the actual 

 destruction of all its former inhabitants had been completed, but so very near such a time, that 

 it was only those animals which were more or less independent of dry land, (such as arboreal, aerial, 

 or aquatic animals), that did survive. In the enumeration of the exceptions to this fact, I showed 

 that the only large mammals whoso existence in the island is beyond question, are the Bos 

 SoNDAicus and the Elephant. The statement that the Hhinoceros and Tapir also inhabit Borneo 

 depends on unsupported allegation. No person can be pointed out or referred to who had actually 

 seen them, and I therefore think I am entitled until some evidence is brought forward in proof 

 of their occurrence there, to reject them as natives of Borneo. 



The Sunda Ox is a domesticated animal, and is more likely to have been introduced than 

 to be aboriginal. Once introduced, it may, easily in such a jungle have escaped and become wild. 

 There, therefore, only remains the Elephant, and, so far as can be ascertained, there seem strong 

 grounds for believing it to have been introduced too. 



Professor Schegel has so little doubt on the subject that he commences his paper on the 

 distinctness of the insidar from the continental Elephants of Asia ia these words : " It is well 

 known that Sumatra is the only island of the Indian Archipelago where Elephants are found 

 wild. Magelhaens has informed us that the Elephants which he saw in Borneo were introduced 

 there, and that the animal is as little indigenous to that island as to Java."t 



As already said, however, Sir. Blyth, also well entitled to speak, takes the opposite view, 

 and maintains that the Elephants now. found in Borneo are aboriginal. 



Mr. Spencer St. John, in his "Life-in the Forests of the far East," says, "Among the principal 

 animals which frequent the forests of Borneo may be mentioned the Elephant, Pihinoceros, the 

 Tapir, wild cattle, Deer, S-svine, Bears, a small Panther, Otters, and a variety of felines. The first 

 three have not been seen hy Euroi^eans. When ascending the River Baram in the north-west coast, 

 one of the guides I had with me said he had frequently traded in the country where Elephants 

 aboimded, and that was in the direction of the Kina Batafigan Eiver on the north-east coast. My 

 favourite follower Musa, when pulling iqj the great River of Kina Batangan, sleerid close in shore 



* Falcoxeh, op. cit. p. 0.^. 



+ ScHi.EGEi., o\>. cit. .supra. Sckter's translaticm " Nat. Hist. Rev." ii. 72. 



c c 



