A FOSSIL CONTINENT 97 



their smooth stems robbed of tlioir outer bark, impart a 

 marvellously antiquated and unfamiliar tone to the general 

 appearance of Australian woodland. Vll these types belong 

 by birth to classes long since extinct in the larger conti- 

 nents. The scrub shows no turfy greensward ; grasses, 

 which elsewhere carpet the ground, were almost unknown 

 till introduced from I'jurope ; in the wild lands, bushes, and 

 undershrubs of ancient aspect cover the soil, remarkable 

 for their stiff, dry, wiry foliage, their vertically instead of 

 horizontally flattened leaves, and their general dead bine- 

 green or glaucous colour. Altogether, the vegetation itself, 

 though it contains a few more modern fonns than the 

 animal world, is still essentially antique in type, a strange 

 survival from the forgotten flora of the chalk age, the oolite, 

 and even the lias. 



Again, to winged animals, such as birds and bats and 

 flying insects, the ocean forms far less of a barrier than it 

 does to quadrupeds, to reptiles, and to fresh-wat fishes. 

 Hence Australia has, to some extent, been invaded by later 

 types of birds and other flying creatures, who live on there 

 side by side with the ancient animals of the secondary 

 pattern. Warblers, thrushes, flycatchers, shrikes, and 

 crows must all be comparatively recent immigrants from 

 the Asiatic mainland. Even in this respect, however, the 

 Australian life-region still bears an antiquated and un- 

 developed aspect. Nowhere else in the world do we find 

 those very oldest types of birds represented by the casso- 

 waries, the emus, and the mooruk of New Britain. The 

 extreme term in this exceedingly ancient >set of creatures 

 is given us by the wingless bird, the apteryx or kiwi of 

 New Zealand, whose feathers nearly resemble hair, and 

 whose grotesque appearance makes it as much a wonder in 

 its own class as the puzzle-monkey and the casuarina are 

 among forest trees. No feathered creatures so closely 



