40 Anniversary Address. 



oneness of design in the structure of certain inhabitants of the 

 separated lands of the Southern hemisphere. 



It is perfectly clear that birds incapable of flight could not 

 have passed by the use of their wings, from island to island, nor 

 could they have partaken in the ordinary character of the 

 migrations of birds. 



"We can only surmise that these Southern lands had once a 

 connection now no longer in existence, or that they have from 

 the beginning remained separate and distinct, each with its 

 peculiar and independent creation. 



I must confess that so far as I understand the received 

 explanation of the formation of the Barrier Eeef, or comprehend 

 the existence of peaks like that of Mount Grower in Howe's 

 Island, it appears to me that neither could have been formed 

 without an older base and support of rocks than are now visible ; 

 and that although the productions of either belong to the present, 

 that present extends backwards in time to what may be called 

 the past. 



Those who are interested in such enquiries will find some very 

 striking illustrations of the subject in the 2nd vol. of Wallace's Malay 

 Arclipelago, published in 1869, in which he assigns reasons for 

 the former connection with Africa of the Malayan Archipelago. 

 As, however, in that case Australia as well as India is excluded, 

 it is, nevertheless, maintainable on similar data, that other 

 connections in the Pacific may have existed between the present 

 insulated tracts of dry land which must have bridged over many 

 great spaces now occupied by the ocean. 



Elsewhere {RemarJcs on Sedimentary Formations of New Soutli 

 Wales ) in 1867, I suggested that the older Australian deposits 

 are repeated in New Zealand, &c. Dr. Hector has since then 

 ( Lectures on Mining, 1869 ) by a very ingenious device, placing 

 an outline of New Zealand on a map of Australia, adjusted to the 

 same meridian, shown that the gold-fields of the former tally with 

 those of the latter in the same re-arranged general latitudes in 

 tchicJi the character of the gold as to the proportions of silver agree ; 

 so confirming the previously expressed idea with additional 



