Chap. L] ZOOLOGY OF CEYLON AND INDIA. 
67 
or whether they have been brought to it from the islands. 1 
f The extraordinary fact/' he observes in his letter to 
me, " of the identity thus established between the ele- 
phants of Ceylon and Sumatra; and the points in which 
they are found to differ from that of Bengal, leads to the 
question whether all the elephants of the Asiatic con- 
tinent belong to one single species ; or whether these vast 
regions may not produce in some quarter as yet unex- 
plored the one hitherto found only in the two islands 
referred to ? It is highly desirable that naturalists who 
have the means and opportunity, should exert them- 
selves to discover, whether any traces are to be found 
of the Ceylon elephant in the Dekkan ; or of that of 
Sumatra in Cochin China or Siam." 
To me the establishment of a fact so conclusively 
confirmatory of the theory I had ventured to broach, is 
productive of great satisfaction. But it is not a little re- 
markable that the distinction should not long before have 
been discovered between the elephant of India and that 
of Ceylon. Nor can it be regarded otherwise than as a 
singular illustration of te geographical distribution " that 
two remote islands should be thus shown to possess in 
common a species unknown in any other quarter of the 
globe. As bearing on the ancient myth which represents 
both countries as forming parts of a submerged continent, 
the discovery is curious — and it is equally interesting in 
connection with the circumstance alluded to by (ribbon, 
that amongst the early geographers and even down to a 
comparatively modern date, Sumatra and Ceylon were 
confounded; and grave doubts were entertained as to 
1 A further inquiry suggests it- ease of elephants bred on the con- 
self, how far the intermixture of tinent of India, from stock partially 
the breed may have served to con- imported from Ceylon? 
found specific differences, in the 
F 2 
