432 OKIGIN OF LIFE IN AMEEICA 



Thus there appears to he a. distinct faunistic affinity betwreen 

 southern South America as a whole, including the Falkland 

 islands, and New Zealand, as well as South Africa and Mada- 

 gascar. I have already alluded to Professor Bouvier's * re- 

 markable discovery of the Peripatus of Chile being more 

 closely allied to that of South Africa than to those of the rest 

 of South America, so that he now places the South African 

 and Chilean species into the genus Opisthopatus, while all 

 the rest remain in the old genus Peripatus. I have likewise 

 drawn attention to the fact that the family of fresh-water cray- 

 fishes Parastacidae occurs only in southern South America,, the 

 Australian region and Madagascar. Professor Kolbe f argued 

 long ago that the manifold faunistic affinities of South 

 America and Madagascar were largely due to an immigration 

 into the latter of American forms from the south by means 

 of antarctic land connections. Lastly, there are relationships 

 even among the marine forms of Patagonia and South Africa 

 which seem to demand the existence of a former direct land 

 connection between these areas, although Dr. Ashworth J 

 would join 'the latter to an Antarctic Continent. When ,the 

 faunas of Madagascar and South Africa become better known, 

 it will be possible to follow these clues with greater success. 

 That these affinities are altogether of the nature of con- 

 vergences, as some authorities would have us believe, is, I 

 think, inadmissible. If they are due to the existence of 

 former antarctic land connections, we may be sure that they 

 are of very great antiquity, possibly far beyond the limits of 

 the Tertiary Era. 



Stimulated largely by these zoogeographical problems, the 

 antarctic regions have within recent years received a greater 

 share of public attention than hitherto. Thus expeditions 

 have been fitted out from Belgium, France, Germany, Eng- 

 land and Scotland in order to endeavour to throw light on 

 some of these mysteries. Interesting results in connection 

 with the theories of a former land connection between 

 South America and Madagascar were obtained, particularly 

 by the Scottish Antarctic Expedition. Eeturning northward 



* Bouvier, B. L., " Monographie des Onycliopliores," pp. 64 — 65. 



t Kolbe, H. J., " Zoogeographisclie Elemente in Madagascar," p. 173. 



t Ashworth, J. H., " Arenicolidae of South Africa," p. 23^ 



