2 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



but on the whole fairly accurately. Thus, to the west 

 we have the great islands of Sumatra, Borneo, and Java 

 with strongly marked Asiatic affinities ; Celebes, occupy- 

 ing a central position and exhibiting a fauna so peculiar 

 as to justify separate consideration ; the Lesser Sunda 

 Islands, New Guinea, Melanesia, and Australia ; the 

 numerous lesser archipelagoes of the Pacific ; and, finally, 

 New Zealand, a country so different from every other in 

 its fauna, that of late many naturalists have considered 

 that it should form a separate zoological region. 



Although, as just intimated, there are many reasons 

 why Australia should not be treated apart from New 

 Guinea, the rapid spread of civilisation in the former 

 continent, and its situation to so large an extent within 

 the temperate zone, have more or less differentiated it. 

 Accordingly, since it has been found necessary to divide 

 the " Australasia " of the present series into two volumes, 

 the following pages will deal only with the tropical por- 

 tion of the Eastern Archipelago, leaving Australia and 

 New Zealand for treatment in a separate volume. The 

 region which we shall now consider may be taken to 

 consist of four divisions, each of which has a distinctive 

 name. These are, — (1) The Malay Archipelago or 

 Malaysia, including the islands from Sumatra to the 

 Philippines and Moluccas, and forming the home of the 

 true Malay race; (2) Melanesia, including the chief 

 islands inhabited by the black, frizzly-haired race from 

 New Guinea to the Fiji Islands; (3) Polynesia, includ- 

 ing all the larger islands of the central Pacific from the 

 Sandwich Islands southward ; and (4) Micronesia, in- 

 cluding the smaller western islands of the North Pacific, 

 inhabited by people of mixed origin. 



T^ese will be further subdivided as occasion requires, 

 and will be taken in the order above indicated. 



