MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 8I 
Australia through New Zealand to South America, and perhaps 
on to South Africa. This continent must have sunk, and 
Australia, New Zealand, South America, and South Africa must 
have remained isolated from one another long enough to allow of 
the great differences observable between the birds of each country 
being brought about. Subsequently New Zealand must have 
formed part of a smaller continent, not connected either with 
Australia or South America, over which the moa roamed. ‘This 
must have been followed by a long insular period, ending in 
another continent still disconnected from Australia and South 
America, which continent again sank and New Zealand assumed 
somewhat of its present form.” 
It is of course assumed that this former extensive Antarctic 
continent existed at a date anterior to the first occurrence of 
mammals either in Australia or South America; and conse- 
quently that all subsequent immigrants from Australia, or from the 
islands lying to the north, must have found ‘their way across the 
intervening expanses of ocean. Prof. Hutton recognises many of 
the difficulties in the way of this theory, as, for example, the 
occurrence of grass-birds (Sphenwacus) in both Australia and New 
Zealand, and the existence of the genus Ocydvomus (woodhens, &c.) 
in New Zealand, Lord Howe’s Island, and New Caledonia, as the 
birds of both these genera are almost, or quite, unable to fly. 
The examination of our fresh-water fish leads him to the 
conclusions, ‘ either that our connection with Australia was later 
than with South America, or that in the old continent New 
Zealand and Australia were inhabited by one, and South America 
by another species ” of the grayling family. ‘‘ The fresh-water fish 
also prove that our connection with the Chatham and Auckland 
Islands was much later than with Australia.” And then he goes 
on to say:—‘ The distribution of Anguilla lativostris, which is not 
found nearer than China (and of A. obscura, a closely allied species, 
which occurs in the Fiji Islands), adds its testimony to that of 
Lotella and Ditvema (other species named by him), of a former 
connection with that part of the world not by way of Australia ; 
and we shall find that this remarkable connection with China and 
the Indian Archipelago, thus dimly shadowed out by the fishes, 
gets stronger and stronger as we review the invertebrate animals.” 
The examination of these lower forms leads to the same 
general conclusion—a strong relationship, on one hand, with 
Australia, and a similar, but distinct, relationship with islands and 
countries to the north. 
In summarising the facts of the geographical distribution of 
the fauna, the following results are arrived at by him:—1. “A 
continental period during which South America, New Zealand, 
Australia, and South Africa were all connected, although it is not 
necessary that all should have been connected at the same time; 
but New Zealand must have been isolated from all before the 
spread of mammals, and from that time to the present it has 
never been completely submerged. This continent was inhabited 
by struthious birds,” &c., &c. 
2. After a period of subsidence, a second continent came into 
existence, ‘stretching from New Zealand to Lord Howe’s Island 
and New Caledonia, and extending for an unknown distance into 
Polynesia, but certainly not so far as the Sandwich Islands.” And 
