CELEBES: A PROBLEM IN DISTRIBUTION 115 



a remarkable group of rats, some of which show affinity 

 to those inhabiting Australia ; and it therefore seems 

 highly likely that the Philippines mark a portion of the 

 line by which Asia was probably in communication at a 

 still earlier epoch with New Guinea and Australia. Still, 

 there are some difficulties in this view of the case, because 

 the more primitive types of marsupials now found in 

 Australia are at present unknown in New Guinea. Possibly, 

 however, some still remain to be discovered in the un- 

 explored mountains of that country; while, since the ex- 

 ploration of the Luzon Mountains by the late Mr. John 

 Whitehead yielded such wonderful zoological results, there 

 is the possibility that when the mountains of the other 

 islands have been as carefully worked we may find a few 

 marsupials still surviving. Should such a fortunate " find " 

 turn up we should have much support to the view that 

 the ancestors of the present fauna of Australia travelled 

 from Asia by way of the eastern archipelago. 



There are many other points connected with the present 

 distribution of animal life in this wonderful region, and 

 their bearing on the former relations of the various islands 

 to one another, to which the limits of this article forbid 

 reference. A word may, however, be said in reference to 

 Timor, which, as already mentioned, forms the eastern 

 extremity of the line of the Sunda Islands that is to say, 

 the line including Sumatra, Java, and Flores, which is 

 evidently a broken-up peninsula. By most writers that 

 portion of the chain lying to the eastward of Java and 

 Bali has been assigned to the Australasian region, and it 

 has consequently been assumed that the deer found in 

 Timor must have been introduced by man. Timor and 

 Flores also contain several other mammals common to the 

 Oriental region, notably a monkey, a civet, a porcupine, 



