V A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST 141 



specialized, e.g. the Tree Kangaroo, which is 

 plainly a very modern product. Tasmania and 

 the south are, on the contrary, stocked with every 

 variety of Marsupial, while the primitive Dasyures 

 are represented in Tasmania by two forms, the 

 Devil and Tiger, which probably never ranged 

 further north than Victoria on the mainland. 



Finally we have the record of fossil history. In 

 Asia and the whole Oriental Region, though it is 

 true we know very few fossiliferous deposits of 

 the requisite age, no Marsupials have ever been 

 discovered. In Australia very little is known of 

 the fossil history of its Marsupial fauna, but the 

 one salient fact which strikes a hard blow at the 

 Asiatic route of the Marsupial migration is that 

 the most ancient Marsupial in Australasia (Wyn- 

 yardia), probably a contemporary with the Opossum 

 in Europe, comes from Table Cape in Tasmania, 

 and is said to show characters intermediate between 

 the Poly- and Diprotodontia. 



These are the chief points in the evidence to 

 support the theory that the Marsupial fauna of 

 Australia has travelled from its place, of origin in 

 the northern hemisphere through South America 

 and the arms of a lost Antarctic continent into 

 southern Australia. 



If this route of migration be granted and with it 

 the existence of a habitable Antarctic continent 

 with rays stretching up to meet with what are 

 now Tasmania, South America, New Zealand, and 

 South Africa, we can settle the relative dates at 



