106 GORAM. [chap. XXV. 



sea within it would form a wall of coral rock, and an 

 undulating coralline plain, exactly similar to those that 

 stUl exist at various altitudes up to the summit of the 

 island. We learn also that these changes have taken place 

 at a comparatively recent epoch, for the surface of the 

 coral has scarcely suffered from the action of the weather, 

 and himdreds of sea-shells, exactly resembling those still 

 found upon the beach, and many of them retaining their 

 gloss and even their colour, are scattered over the surface 

 of the island to near its summit. 



"Whether the Goram group formed originally part of 

 New Guinea or of Ceram it is scarcely possible to deter- 

 mine, and its productions will throw little light upon the 

 question, if, as I suppose, the islands have been entirely 

 submerged within the epoch of existing species of animals, 

 as in that case it must owe its present fauna and flora 

 to recent immigration from surrounding lands ; and with 

 this view its poverty in species very well agrees. It 

 possesses much in common with East Ceram, but at the 

 same time has a good deal of resemblance to the Ke 

 Islands and Banda. The fine pigeon, Carpophaga concinna, 

 inhabits Ke, Banda, Matabello, and Goram, and is replaced 

 by a distinct species, C. neglecta, in Ceram. The insects of 

 these four islands have also a common facies — facts which 

 seem to indicate that some more extensive land has 

 recently disappeared from the area they now occupy, 



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