"48 



EOUNDARY OP THE INDIAN 



[Ch. 



.-iv^: 



III 



tioned, is inhabited by mammalia belonging- almost exclusively 



mar 



The only associated and indi- 

 genous placental species are a few rodents and bats. Al- 



m 



seems 



sufficiently 



direction to account for the marked line of separation in the 

 islands of the Malay archipelago between the species beloi 

 to the Australian and those proper to the Indian region. 

 The geographical distribution of the two faunas, which are 

 remarkably distinct, is shown in the annexed map, all the lands 

 which are shaded belonging to the Australian and those which 



are unshaded to the Indian region. Mr. Wallace has also 

 pointed out that the line a h, which divides two different 

 assemblages of mammalia and birds, coincides very nearly with 

 the line c h, which divides two of the best characterised races 

 of mankind, the Malayan and the Pacific, in which last are 

 included the Papuans, Australians, and Polynesians.* 



The Straits of Lombok, through which the line a I passes 

 between the island of that name and Bali, are only fifteen 

 miles across, less wide than the Straits of Dover, and yet the 

 contrast of the animals of various classes on both sides of this 

 narrow channel is as great as that between the Old and the 



ids. In other words, the discordance, not only in 

 species but in genera, equals that which is usually caused by 

 a wide ocean rather than by straits which allow of one shore 

 being easily seen from the other. It has already been stated 

 (p. 343) that all those islands of the Malay archipelago which 

 are only separated from the mainland of Asia by a depth of 

 water of less than 100 fathoms contain a fauna which is strictly 

 Indian. Mr. Wallace, iii commenting on this fact, has pointed 

 out the obvious relation of the present distribution of animals 

 and plants with changes in the position of land and sea 



New Wo 



must 



modern 



XIY 



XXXI 









"^ See below, Chap. XLIII. 



