114 Mr. C. Hedley on Surviving Refugees 



constitutes the recorded terrestrial flora. Enveloped in an 

 atmosphere of universal death, wrapped in its closely clinging 

 cerements of ice and snow, the one expression of the 

 Antarctica of to-day is that of lifeless silence *. 



But it was once otherwise. Not only may a naturalist 

 assert that here stately forests once stood, streams once rippled, 

 and green fields smiled, but he can picture what trees com- 

 posed those forests, of what kind were the frogs and snails 

 they sheltered, and of what form were the fish that swam in 

 those streams. 



Early scientific travellers f remarked that the converging 

 continental masses of the southern world held as common 

 stock certain forms of life. Closer enquiry elicited that these 

 common forms were primitive, often isolated types, survivors 

 of some ancient population overwhelmed and slaughtered by 

 invaders from the north. South Africa was found to stand 

 somewhat apart from the closer bond which united Tasmania 

 and Australia to New Zealand and South America, while New 

 Zealand is in turn poorer actually, if not comparatively, than 

 Tasmania in South American affinities. 



"Community of type," writes Dr. Gill}, "must be the 

 expression of community of origin .... and recent palaeon- 

 tological finds indicate that even the Thylacinids (or, at least, 

 forms resembling them) were formerly natives of southern 



America The freshwater fishes [of New Zealand] must 



have been derived from the same common source as those of 

 the isothermal portions of Australia (of course including Tas- 

 mania) and southern America. There may not have been a 

 continuity of land at any one time between South America, 

 Australia, and New Zealand, but at some remote period in the 

 past it is at least possible that there was a region in which 

 Galaxids and Haplochitonids were developed, and subse- 

 quently representatives of those families might have found 

 their way into the regions where they now abound." 



An enumeration of the genera common to South America, 

 New Zealand, and Tasmania, and therefore probably of 

 Antarctic origin, would exceed the limits of this paper. 

 Forbes § quotes numerous instances ; and for more ex- 



* For the best physical and geographical description of Antarctica see 

 Murray, ' The Geographical Journal,' vol. iii. pp. 1-27. 



t J." D. Hooker, " On the Huon Pine &c," London Journal of Botany, 

 vol. iv. 1845, pp. 137-157. 



\ " A Comparison of Antipodal Faunas," National Academy of 

 Sciences, vol. vi. p. 108. 



§ u Antarctica, a supposed former Southern Continent," Natural 

 Science, iii. pp. 54-57. 



