454 



ANIMALS OF EGA 



A few more words on the peculiar way in which these 

 groups of monkeys are distributed over the earth's sur- 

 face. We may consider, in connection with this subject, 

 the great land masses of the warmer parts of the earth 

 to be four in number, i. Australia, with New Guinea 

 and its neighbouring islands : 2. Madagascar : 3. 

 America : 4. The Continental mass of the Old World, 

 comprising Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Islands of the 

 Malay Archipelago, which latter are connected with Asia 

 by a shallow sea, whilst they are separated from New 

 Guinea by a channel of very deep water ; the shallow sea 

 pointing to a former, but recent, union of the lands 

 which it connects, the deep channel a complete and 

 enduring severance of the lands which it separates. Now, 

 with regard to monkeys, these four land masses seem to 

 have had these animals allotted to them in the most 

 capricious way possible, if we are to take for granted 

 that the species were arbitrarily created on the lands 

 where they are now found. Australia, with soil and 

 climate as well adapted for Baboons as Africa, where they 

 abound, and New Guinea, with rich humid forests as 

 suitable for Orangs and Gibbons as the very similar island 

 of Borneo, have, neither of them, a single species of native 

 monkey. Madagascar possesses only Lemurs, the most 

 lowly-organised group of apes, although the neighbouring 

 continent of Africa contains numerous species of all 

 families of Old World apes. America, as we have seen, 

 has no Lemurs, and not a single representative of the 

 Old World groups of the order, but is well peopled by 

 genera and species belonging to two distinct groups pe- 

 culiar to the continent. Lastly, the Old World con- 

 tinental mass, with a few anomalous forms of Lemurs 

 scattered here and there, is the exclusive home of the 

 whole of the Pithecidae family, which presents a series 

 of forms graduating from the debased Baboon to the 

 Gorilla, which some zoologists consider to approach near 

 to man in his organization. 



What does all this mean ? Why are the different 

 forms apportioned in this way to the various lands of 

 the earth ? Why is Australia with New Guinea destitute 

 of monkeys, and why should Madagascar have stopped 

 short at Lemurs, whilst America has gone on to pre- 

 hensile-tailed Cebidas, and the Old-World continent con- 

 tinued to Gibbons, Orangs, Chimpanzee, and Gorilla ? 



