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island of floods; therefore, how much more must it 

 have been so when its primaeval forests, in all their 

 splendour, caused an amount of exhalation and moisture 

 of which at present we can have but a remote conception ! 

 Hence, it is hardly to be imagined, that (however limited 

 may have been the naturally acquired areas of those of 

 its inmates which are most sluggish and sedentary) a 

 fusion would not have taken place, in the course of ages, 

 so as to render its modern fauna, in a large measure, 

 homogeneous throughout. Yet, in spite of this esoteric 

 tendency, it is surprising how little amalgamation has 

 been effected amongst the tenants of its several districts. 

 Scarcely a gorge or woodland serra exists within its 

 bounds which does not harbour some species essentially 

 its own; and in many instances the ranges of these 

 creatures are so local or confined, that they might 

 be easily overlooked even in their respective neighbour- 

 hoods. It is certain, however, that the floods (which 

 happen periodically) have done considerable work in 

 naturalizing many of the subalpine forms, which could 

 adapt themselves to the climatal change, in altitudes 

 below their normal ones : and, in the north of the 

 island, where the temperature is cooler than on the 

 opposite side, and where the lofty defiles terminate, even 

 at their lowest outlets, in abrupt precipices along the 

 coast, so that the rejectamenta during the annual rains 

 are brought into direct contact with the shore, this 

 gradual process of deportation is particularly evident, 

 a circumstance to which I have already alluded else- 



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