24 FISHERIES OP THE ORIENTAL REGION, 



66. Ophichthys boro, Ham. Bach. 



67. Anguilla bengalensis, Gray. 



68. Triacanthus brevirostris, Giinth. 



69. Carcharias laticaudus, Mull, and Hen. 



70. Trygon walga, Mull, and Hen. 



It has been the custom of late years amongst naturalists to 

 speculate upon the reasons for the peculiar character of the land 

 and water fauna in every country, and to attribute them to 

 geological changes. It is not so certain that geology is responsible 

 for all she is made thus to bear ; but whether she be so or not, T 

 think they go a little too far when they proceed to describe circum- 

 stantially the precise geological changes which have taken place. 

 Here theory has been overstrained ; we are required to believe 

 in the relative ages of different portions of islands and continents 

 which are said to have remained dry land and so forth, from 

 remote geological epochs. We can acknowledge that the problems 

 to be accounted for are very intricate and puzzling, but it seems to 

 me they are best left as problems. 



Mr. Day says in his introduction to the " Fishes of India" 

 (p. xiv.) " Omitting for the present from whence the type forms 

 of vertebrate life were derived, we require to know how it is that 

 some of the identical species of fish are found along the Western 

 Ghauts of India, and in the Himalayas, but absent from the sub- 

 region of Hindostan ? and how is it we see some genera identical 

 in Ceylon and in the Malay Archipelago, or in China, but absent 

 from India and Burma." 



"The presence of certain Chinese, Malayan, Burmese, and 

 Siamese forms in Ceylon and in the Western Ghauts, with their 

 absence in the intervening alluvial plains of Hindostan, leads to 

 the supposition that, at an antecedent date, some connection 

 existed between these earlier geological formations and the more 

 eastern countries. We observe some identical forms in the island 

 of Ceylon and in Java or China, but absent from intervening 

 localities : but does this prove more than that those intervening 

 stations have passed away." 



