142 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



which these countries became severed from the 

 southern continent. The elements which South 

 Africa has in common with the other countries 

 are very few indeed, and it is clear that this was the 

 earliest to lose connexion, New Zealand, though 

 possessing many features of the Antarctic flora 

 and fauna, must have been cut off before the 

 Marsupials reached Antarctica, that is to say, con- 

 siderably prior to Tertiary time. South America 

 and Tasmania were therefore the latest in con- 

 nexion with one another, and possess the greatest 

 community in their inhabitants, and judging by 

 the standard of the Marsupials we are perhaps 

 justified in placing their final separation somewhere 

 about the beginning of the Tertiary epoch. 



A great deal of evidence bearing on the existence 

 of Antarctica could be drawn from the study of 

 other groups, e.g. the Mollusc a, which have formed 

 the special study of Mr. Charles Hedley, of Sydney, 

 himself a convinced believer and advocate of the 

 theory. I have chiefly wished to emphasize cer- 

 tain typically temperate and Alpine groups of the 

 southern hemisphere, because from them it seems 

 to me that the strongest evidence is to be obtained, 

 and perhaps the most interesting development of 

 the future will be the working out of the inverte- 

 brate animals of the Andes from this point of view. 



Antarctic exploration in the strict sense will 

 doubtless bring many facts to light bearing on 

 the question, and the discovery of sedimentary 

 rocks on the Antarctic shelf is already evidence in 



