Chap. L] ZOOLOGY OF CEYLON AND INDIA. 67 



or whether they have been brought to it from the islands. 1 

 " The extraordinary fact/' he observes in his letter to 

 me, C€ 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 " 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 Gribbon, 

 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- case 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 



