282 THE UNKNOWN. 



this is absolutely virgin ground to the naturalist ; but 

 what we know of the poverty of the Australian fauna does 

 not encourage any extravagant expectation of novelties, 

 even from so vast an expanse of intertropical country : 

 some new genera of marsupial mammalia, and a good 

 many birds and reptiles, may possibly remain to be dis- 

 covered. Papua, if it is indeed continuous land and not 

 a group of islands, is the most promising region in this 

 quarter to the naturalist : it is a land of hope, immense 

 in area, and covered with virgin forest, producing birds 

 and insects the most magnificent in the world, and yet 

 only just glimpsed here and there on the coast. We may 

 expect great things from it when explored ; and cannot 

 but hope that Mr Wallace, whose longings have just been 

 recorded, may yet find opportunity, with safety to himself, 

 of satisfying the desire of his heart. 



The interior of China is a great region scarcely seen by an 

 European eye ; and its mountainous districts especially are 

 doubtless rich in animal and vegetable productions as yet 

 unknown to science. But the incredibly crowded condi- 

 tion of its human population, and the diligence with which 

 every available inch of land is cultivated, are circum- 

 stances which militate against the existence of wild ani- 

 mals and plants.* Japan will probably fall under the 



* Mr Wallace, writing from Lombok, one of the Sunda Isles, removed 

 but a few degrees from the equator, thus complains of the antagonism 

 of cultivation to natural history : " There is nothing but dusty roads 

 and paddy fields for miles around, producing no insects or birds worth 

 collecting. It is really astonishing, and will be almost incredible to 

 many persons at homp, that a tropical country, when cultivated, should 



