DIVIDING CUEEENTS. 309 ■ 



nhore must be deprived of every chance of reaching these islands, 

 since a dividing current flowed between them. 1 have further 

 remarked above, how sharp a contrast is defined between the 

 marine fauna east and west of the meridian of the Cape of Good 

 Hope ; to the east, the animals of the Indian Ocean brought 

 down by the Mozambique current, and a multitude of beautiful 

 forms are abundant ; to the west, there is the greatest poverty 

 of animal life and a quite different set of species. No mixture 

 of the two occurs, as it would seem; and this is coniirmed by the 

 statement — never, so far as I know, contradicted — that the whale 

 of the Atlantic never crosses the meridian of the Cape, although 

 it is certainly one of the strongest swimmers of the deep. I 

 have before shown how difficult it must be for the larger land 

 molluscs to cross arms of the sea, and this is visible even on a small 

 scale. To the north of Luzon lies a small group of islands 

 known as the Babuyanes. Their land-snails belong on the whole 

 to the groups typical of the Philippines ; true Cochlostylm 

 for the most part, but quite different on the eastern and western 

 islands. Species occur on the latter which bear a remarkable 

 resemblance to those of the west coast of Luzon or are quite iden- 

 tical, while on the former only such are found as are especially 

 characteristic of the eastern side of that island. This may in 

 part result from the fact that the vegetation of the eastern and 

 western Babuyanes seems to be tolerably dissimilar, but this 

 would not remove the influence of the currents flowing from 

 the east and west of Luzon — an influence which is plainly 

 discernible — it would only make it indirect. For on Luzon, too, 

 the same difference is perceptible in the vegetation of the eastern 

 and western portions ; in the east, forests without limit ; in the 

 west, cultivated land and pasture. It would be easy to cite a 

 great number of similar cases in which the dividing action of 

 marine currents would be more or less discernible, but it must 

 suffice here to discuss in detail another of the more interesting 

 examples. 



The difference between the fauna of the islands of the 

 Malayan province and that of New Guinea and New Holland 

 long since attracted the attention of naturalists. Schmarda 

 defined the Australian region as in direct contrast to the Indian. 



