CELEBES: A PROBLEM IN DISTRIBUTION 115 
a remarkable group of rats, some of which show affinity 
to those inhabiting Australia; and it therefore seems 
highly likely that the Philippines mark a portion of the 
line by which Asia was probably in communication at a 
still earlier epoch with New Guinea and Australia, Still, 
there are some difficulties in this view of the case, because 
the more primitive types of marsupials now found in 
Australia are at present unknown in New Guinea. Possibly, 
however, some still remain to be discovered in the un- 
explored mountains of that country; while, since the ex- 
ploration of the Luzon Mountains by the late Mr. John 
Whitehead yielded such wonderful zoological results, there 
is the possibility that when the mountains of the other 
islands have been as carefully worked we may find a few 
marsupials still surviving. Should such a fortunate “ find” 
turn up we should have much support to the view that 
the ancestors of the present fauna of Australia travelled 
from Asia by way of the eastern archipelago. 
There are many other points connected with the present 
distribution of animal life in this wonderful region, and 
their bearing on the former relations of the various islands 
to one another, to which the limits of this article forbid 
reference. A word may, however, be said in reference to 
Timor, which, as already mentioned, forms the eastern 
extremity of the line of the Sunda Islands—that is to say, 
the line including Sumatra, Java, and Flores, which is 
evidently a broken-up peninsula. By most writers that 
portion of the chain lying to the eastward of Java and 
Bali has been assigned to the Australasian region, and it 
has consequently been assumed that the deer found in 
Timor must have been introduced by man. Timor and 
Flores also contain several other mammals common to the 
Oriental region, notably a monkey, a civet, a porcupine, 
