Chap. I.] ZOOLOGY OF CEYLON AND INDIA. 61 
Ceylon was alleged to bear the same relation as Sicily 
presents to the peninsula of Italy. Malte Beun 1 and 
the geographers generally, declared the larger animals 
of either to be common to both. I was led to question 
the soundness of this dictum; — and from a closer ex- 
amination of its geological conformation and of its bo- 
tanical and zoological characteristics I came to the con- 
clusion that not only is there an absence of sameness 
between the formations of the two localities ; but that 
plants and animals, mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects 
exist in Ceylon, which are not to be found in the flora 
and fauna of the Dekkan ; but which present a striking 
affinity, and occasionally an actual identity, with those 
of the Malayan countries and some of the islands of the 
Eastern Archipelago. Startling as this conclusion ap- 
peared to be, it was strangely in unison with the legends 
of the Singhalese themselves, that at an infinitely remote 
period Ceylon formed an integral portion of a vast con- 
tinent, known in the mythical epics of the Brahmans by 
the designation of "Lanka;" so immense that its south- 
ern extremity fell below the equator, whilst in breadth 
it was prolonged till its western and eastern boundaries 
touch at once upon the shores of Africa and China. 
Dim as is this ancient tradition, it is in consistency with 
the conclusions of modern geology, that at the com- 
mencement of the tertiary period northern Asia and a 
considerable part of India were in all probability covered 
by the sea— but that south of India land extended 
eastward and westward connecting Malacca with Arabia. 
Pkofessob, Ansted has propounded this view. His 
opinion is, that the Himalayas then existed only as a 
chain of islands, and did not till a much later age be- 
1 Malte Betjn, Geogr. Univ., 1. xlis. 
