i'HE ORIENTAL REGtON AND ITS POSITION. 753 



mainly composed of coniferous trees, it passes to the southward of 

 Kashmir and then tends northward into Eastern Tibet, across the desert 

 of Gobi, so as to include the whole valley of the Yang-tse-kiang and 

 probably also that of the Hoang-ho, till it strikes the coast of China 

 somewhere about Shanghai. Our present knowledge of the zoology 

 of China is, however, so limited that it is not as yet possible to say 

 where the change in the character of the fauna actually occurs. 



Formosa and the Philippine Islands are included in the region, 

 whence the line passes between Borneo and Celebes and then between 

 the two small islands of Bali and Lombok, just at the eastern end of 

 Java, passing away into the Indian Ocean south of the latter 

 island. 



Now this clearly marked division between the islands of Bali 

 and Lombok is one of the most extraordinary instances in zoological 

 geography, showing how little mere geographical considerations, 

 judged from the situation and configuration of islands or continents, 

 has to do with its phenomena. They are, judging from the map, two 

 insignificant little islands about the size of Corsica, separated by a 

 narrow strait no more than fifteen miles across at its narrowest part ; 

 of considerable depth it certainly is — over 1,000 fathoms — but who 

 would ever have imagined that we should here find the ancient 

 boundary line of geological times between the continents of Asia and 

 Australia ? How inapplicable does the very name Australasian, so 

 often applied to this part of the world, become ? Regarding these two 

 islands I cannot do better than quote what Mr. Wallace, who dis- 

 covered this remarkable boundary' line, wrote : — 



" These islands differ far more from each other in their birds and 

 " quadrupeds than do England and Japan. The birds of the one are 

 " extremely unlike those of the other, the difference being such as to 

 " strike even the most ordinary observer. Bali has red and green 

 " woodpeckers, barbets, weaver-birds and black and white magpie 

 " robins, none of which are found in Lombok, where, however, we 

 " find screaming cockatoos and friar-birds, and the strange mound-build- 

 " ing megapodes, which are equally unknown in Bali. Many of the 

 "kingfishers, crow-shrikes and other birds, though of the same general 

 " form, are of very distinct species ; and though a considerable number 

 " of birds are the same in both islands, the difference is none the less 

 "remarkable — as proving that mere distance is one of the least 



