MAEINE FAUNA OF PATAGONIA 429 



persa] of marine mollusks between Patagonia and New Zea- 

 land. It is interesting to note that, whereas this faunistic 

 interchange took place between Patagonia and New Zealand, 

 the early Tertiary Chilean fauna exhibits scarcely any traces 

 of relationship with that of New Zealand. 



If the ancient land connection between southern South 

 America and New Zealand had been a westward extension of 

 the coast of Chile, we should expect a greater resemblance 

 between the old Tertiary fauna of the latter country and New 

 Zealand than between Patagonia and New Zealand. The evi- 

 dence derived from the Eocene mollusks of Patagonia and 

 New Zealand is, therefore, in favour of a southern land con- 

 nection by way of the antarctic regions. I cannot believe that 

 an Antarctic Continent, in the sense of Forbes or Osbom, 

 could have existed at that time. If the affinity of the marine 

 faunas of Patagonia and New Zealand was due to a con- 

 tinuous shore-line between the two countries, Chile must 

 have extended southward beyond Tierra del Fuego and then 

 have curved across to New Zealand in a great loop. The Pata- 

 gonian fauna spread to New Zealand on the soutJi side of the 

 latter. Hence the South Polar region must have been largely 

 covered by sea at that time. At any rate, I believe in the 

 former existence of two land connections between Chile and' 

 New Zealand, one by way of North America and eastern Asia, 

 the other directly across the South Polar area. 



This leads us to the third problem connected with that 

 extraordinarily interesting region of southern South America, 

 namely, its direct affinities with the anntarctic regions, and in- 

 cidentally with South Africa and Madagascar. The southern 

 tip of Tierra del Fuego bends eastward. At its eastern ex- 

 tremity lies Staten island, and beyond it the great Burdwood 

 Bank. North of the latter, at no great distance, are situated 

 the Falkland islands. Nowhere is there a greater depth of 

 water than a hundred fathoms between the latter and the 

 mainland. Consequently all this presumably was once part of 

 South America. 



The Falkland islands cover an area of about half the size 

 of Ireland, lying three hundred and fifty miles east of Pata- 

 gonia. The country consists of undulating moorland, with an 

 abundance of peaty soil yielding an ample supply of wiry 



