550 



THE AMEBIC 



A LI ST 



[Vol. XLV 



the strait between Burn and the Sula Archipelago was 

 found to be of considerable depth (about 4,100 meters), 

 an argument against any such land connection. 



It occurs to me that the past events which have been 

 reconstructed by the Sarasins are just as well explained 

 by "Weber's opinion, which is that the separated islands, 

 which gave rise to Celebes, by consolidation, have re- 

 ceived their fauna in the way which the Sarasins have 

 suggested. The point of difference is indeed simply a 

 question of interpreting the significance of the earlier 

 history. In either case it is entirely plausible that 

 Celebes has received its fauna from the south, 11 the 

 north, and the east ; not directly from Borneo, but rather 

 by means of small islands or narrow land bridges ; which 

 fact has had a great influence on the impoverishment of 

 the fauna. On the other hand, animals from Celebes 

 have been enabled to spread out along these same land 

 connections, so that occasionally we hud evidences among 

 the Philippines and the Lesser Sunda Islands of this 

 having happened by their having certain common animal 

 types. 



It is peculiar that the truly Indian character of 

 Celebes (the great westerly island of the transition re- 

 gion) remained unsuspected for so long; while on the 

 other hand, no one doubted, but rather laid stress upon, 

 the Australian relationship of that vast easterly island, 

 New Guinea, the fauna of which is fully as Indian as 

 that of Celebes is Australian. It simply happened that 

 those groups of animals which at once were most evi- 

 dent, and which had been most frequently used in eluci- 

 dating zoogeographical questions — especially birds and 

 mammals — are preponderatingly Australian upon New 

 Guinea, and happen to show upon Celebes also a con- 

 siderable Australian admixture. Had earlier investiga- 



u Weber brings into existence two different land bridges as an argument 

 to explain the difference between the fauna of Java and Flores. He is 

 inclined to the opinion that there was here a land mass of considerable 



