484 BORNEON MAMMIFERS. 



heaped up in the axils of branches, somewhat in the form 

 of flattened cylinders and compressed cones. 



As might naturally be expected from the circumstance of 

 the island comprising the vast chain of the Oriental Archi- 

 pelago lying within the tropics, the equinoctial line extend- 

 ing nearly through the centre, the animals peculiar to the 

 entire group partake of a certain uniformity of character ; 

 many islands having, however, certain well marked varieties 

 of animals peculiar to their own Fauna. Borneo, like the 

 other islands, may be said to bear the same relation in its 

 animal and vegetable productions to India, as the West 

 Indian Islands do to America ; but Borneo, occupying a 

 more central position between the zoological regions of 

 Hindostan and Malacca on the one hand, and of Australia 

 on the other, has more large quadrupeds than New Guinea, 

 but at the same time fewer forms which are peculiar to 

 the Australian Fauna. The Dutch, however, have ascer- 

 tained the existence of several species of those anomalous 

 mammals, the Tree Kangaroos (Dendrolegus] in Borneo, 

 the Pteromys will represent Petaurista, and I have seen a 

 small Gerbil which might represent the Kangaroos on the 

 one hand, and the Gerbillus Indicus on the part of Hin- 

 dostan. Herds of Elephants are stated to tramp the vast 

 unexplored forests of the promontory of Unsang, although 

 during our visits to that part of the coast no traces of 

 those huge Pachyderms were reported to have been seen ; 

 but as the Elephant has been found in Sumatra, and as 

 the Indian Tapir exists in Borneo, the probability is that 

 the Elephant may some day be discovered. The researches 

 of Messrs. Diard, Korthals, and Miiller, have ascertained 

 the existence of a species of Rhinoceros, but it is uncertain 



