No. 537] ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF THE EAST INDIES 553 



have announced that both islands have not one single 

 species of animal common to them which is not also 

 fonnd upoD Java, Sumatra or the Philippine Islands. 

 There is not the slightest possibility of there having 

 been a direct land bridge between Celebes and Borneo 

 across the Straits of Macassar since the very earliest 

 geologic times. This difference between Celebes and 

 Borneo is beyond doubt one of the real reasons for the 

 unjustifiable opinion of Wallace and for the placing, as 

 he did, of his boundary line. 



That the Java sea is, according to the Sarasins, of 

 great age is shown by the fact that a curved line may be 

 drawn through this sea and continued into the Straits 

 of Macassar, which terminating blindly, so to speak, at 

 both ends, cuts the archipelago into two portions, or, we 

 might better say, bounds one part where the islands of 

 younger geologic age have apparently had no connection 

 with the mainland. It has thus an entirely- different sig- 

 nificance from the boundary line as it was formerly 



A third peculiarity of Celebes upon winch Weber has 

 laid particular stress is the paucity of certain groups of 

 animals in comparison with the three Greater Sunda Is- 

 lands. Weber has considered the fauna of Celebes as 

 being essentially an impoverished Indian one. This 

 poverty appears best brought out by the appended table, 9 

 wherein the comparison as regards the approximate ex- 

 tent of the islands is given. 



