8 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS 



Wallace, who has devoted many pages to the discussion 

 of this subject, 1 has come to the conclusion that, admitting 

 that these six regions are not precisely equal in rank, and 

 that some of them are more isolated than the others, they 

 are in geographical equality, compactness of area, and 

 facility of definition beyond all comparison better than 

 any others which have been suggested for the purpose of 

 facilitating the study of geographical distribution. 



Notwithstanding Mr. Wallace's strong support, how- 

 ever, it is right to say that this system has not been univer- 

 sally accepted. Professor Huxley (6) in 1868 proposed 

 to separate the world into two divisions — Arctogsea and 

 Notogsea, the former containing the Nearctic, Palsearctic, 

 Ethiopian, and Oriental Regions, and the latter the Neo- 

 tropical and Australian Regions. He adopted the Nearctic, 

 Palsearctic, Ethiopian, and Oriental Regions as subdivisions 

 of Arctogsea, and only stipulated for the formation of a 

 Circum-polar province independent of the Nearctic and 

 Palsearctic Regions. Notogsea Professor Huxley divided 

 into three provinces (a) the Austro- Columbian ( = the 

 Neotropical), (6) the Australian ( = the Australian Region 

 minus New Zealand), and (c) the New Zealand province. 



From this it will be seen that Professor Huxley's 

 scheme does not really diverge materially from the system 

 here employed ; the chief points of difference being (a) the 

 uniting together of the Australian and Neotropical Regions 

 into Notogsea ; (6) the formation of independent Circum- 

 polar and New Zealand provinces. With regard to the 

 first point, almost the only bond of union between the 

 Australian and Neotropical Regions, so far as mammals, 

 at any rate, are concerned, is the presence of Marsupials 



1 "Geographical Distribution of Animals," vol. i., chap. iv. 



