306 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL 



Indian. About thirty kinds of snakes are known, but 

 only six or seven of these are dangerous. Mr. de Vis 

 classes them in seventeen genera, of which all but four 

 are Australian — a proportion which strongly suggests 

 community of origin in former ages. " But on the other 

 hand," he writes, " when we descend to species we find 

 that fewer than a third of these are Australian as well as 

 Papuan, and that these few include the fresh-water and 

 tree snakes, which liave exceptional means of spreading 

 from one land to anotiier. . . . The process of trans- 

 formation has, therefore, been carried on for a consider- 

 able time, but has not endured long enough to effect 

 more than specific changes, save in one instance. So 

 that we are led by the testimony of the snakes to the 

 same conclusion as that gathered from a review of the 

 lizards, namely, that New Guinea was separated from 

 Australia at no very modern period." 



Although perhaps scarcely equalling those of South 

 America, the insects of New Guinea offer a great variety 

 of strange forms and gorgeous hues. Conspicuous among 

 the butterflies l^oth for size and colouring are the green 

 and gold Ornithopteras of the 0. ^^^'^c^^mis type, the 

 female of which exceeds seven inches across the wings. 

 Still more l^eautiful is Painlio 2Knelo2)e with its metallic 

 l^lue colouring — a common species, and, like the first, of 

 Moluccan type. Beetles are hardly less conspicuous and 

 interesting. The class, however, is as yet only partially 

 known, and is less to be relied upon to throw light on 

 the former connections of the island than any other. 



The JNIolluscan fauna, on the other hand, is of great 

 assistance in this I'cspect. It is the richest, and by far 

 the most original, of all the Australasian region. To 

 quote the words of Mr. A. H. Cooke, " We find ourselves, 

 almost in a moment, in a district full of new and singular 



