chap. xiv. J OF THE TIMOR GROUP. 327 



nearly allied to any Australian form, is strongly corrobora- 

 • tive of the opinion that Timor has never formed a part of 

 that country; as in that case some kangaroo or other 

 marsupial animal would almost certainly be found there. 

 It is no doubt very difficult to account for the presence of 

 some of the few mammals that do exist in Timor, especially 

 the tiger cat and the deer. We must consider, however, 

 that during thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thou- 

 sands of years, these islands and the seas between them 

 have been subjected to volcanic action. The land has 

 been raised and has sunk again; the straits have been 

 narrowed or widened ; many of the islands may have been 

 joined and dissevered again ; violent floods have again 

 and again devastated the mountains and plains, carrying 

 out to sea hundreds of forest trees, as has often happened 

 during volcanic eruptions in Java ; and it does not seem 

 improbable that once in a thousand, or ten thousand years, 

 there should have occurred such a favourable combination 

 of circumstances as would lead to the migration of two or 

 three land animals from one island to another. This is all 

 that we need ask to account for the very scanty and frag- 

 mentary group of Mammalia which now inhabit the large 

 island of Timor. The deer may very probably have been 

 introduced by man, for the Malays often keep tame fawns ; 

 and it may not require a thousand, or even five hundred 

 years, to establish new characters in an animal removed to 



