"50 



BOUNDARY OF THE INDIAN 



[Ch. XXXVIII. 



from Borneo, and pass over to Celebes, tlie Mo 



ISTew Guinea, the difference is almost 



In Java 



many 



wild cats, deer, civets, otters, and squirrels are constantly met 

 with. In Celebes or the Moluccas, none of these occur, but 



opossum 



seen. 



Some 



man 



Mr. Wallace moreover reminds us that the diversity in the 

 natural productions of the two great regions does not corre- 



spond to any of the physical or climatal divisions of the 

 surface. On both sides of the line of demarcation we find in 

 the same latitude islands of volcanic origin similar in soil, 

 elevation, moisture, dryness, and fertility, and equally covered 

 with forests. How then are we to explain the distinctness 

 of the two faunas ? The greater depth of the sea which sepa- 

 rates the lands east of the line a h 



g- 



from 



to 



the west of it would lead us to speculate on a longer period 

 of separation. Still it may be asked, how is it possible to 



conceive that a channel in 



miles 



should have been so effective in arresting the migration of 

 species from one region into the other ? Before we give an 

 account of Mr. Wallace's speculations on this head, we must 

 state, that marked as is the contrast on the opposite sides of 

 the line a h, some colonisation from one province to the other 

 has already begun, although less perhaps than along any one 

 of the points of contact of the five great zoological provinces 

 before described. In Lombok there are several mammalia 

 of the placental class. The largest of them is the ape called 

 Macacus cynomolgus . As to the wild pig it may have been 

 introduced by man, and the same may be said of the Moluccan 

 deer, which occurs in the island of Timor. The Paradoxurus 

 musanga of the weasel tribe, also found in many of these 

 islands east of the line a h, is an animal often domesticated. 

 But a shrew-mou.se and a feline animal, Felis megalotus, 

 peculiar to Timor, are less easily explained ; unless, indeed, 

 our acquaintance with the mammalia of Java is still defective, 

 a supposition by no means improbable. The squirrels extend 

 from Lombok eastward as far as Sumbawa, but no farther. 





J 





