chap, ix.] INDO-MJLAY ISLANDS. 227 



peculiar species of birds and mammals in such an island 

 as Banca is a hopeless puzzle ; and I think I have shown 

 that the changes required are by no means so improbable 

 as a mere glance at the map would lead us to suppose. 



For our next example let us take the great islands of 

 Sumatra and Java. These, approach so closely together, 

 and the chain of volcanoes that runs through them gives 

 such an air of unity to the two, that the idea of their 

 having been recently dissevered is immediately suggested. 

 The natives of Java, however, go further than this ; for 

 they actually have a tradition of the catastrophe which 

 broke them asunder, and fix its date at not much more 

 than a thousand years ago. It becomes interesting, there- 

 fore, to see what support is given to this view by the 

 comparison of their animal productions. 



The Mammalia have not been collected with sufficient 

 completeness in both islands to make a general comparison 

 of much value, and so many species have been obtained 

 only as live specimens in captivity, that their locality has 

 often been erroneously given, — the island in which they 

 were obtained being substituted for that from which they 

 originally came. Taking into consideration only those 

 whose distribution is more accurately known, we learn that 

 Sumatra is, in a zoological sense, more nearly related to 

 Borneo than it is to Java. The great man-like apes, the 

 elephant, the tapir, and the Malay bear, are all common to 



Q-2 



