THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO* 



t raver* ■ cvlvMiifily dial law water*, scarcely anywhere exreetUii;* 40 

 liLl lsi'in> all ill-- way tn liali, jii. dm i-a-tiTii c^lrcuiti y nf Java, Hut 

 here the ^niindini; Hue piling Midden ly into great depths whieh, 

 lytgiwwiwg with llit' narrow pMMga 15 mile* wide, ltetween Buli itnd 



I, -ii il ■■ -k. ;u nlinued iiMrtliw.Lf-K .m- 1 eastwards iIiooi-jU Mncaswir 



Strait runt the CN'tt" In--"* Sea to the IVieilir Ocean- Hence the dividing 



I ■ ■ 1 1 - is drawn in the same direction between Bali, Kurt , and the 



Philippines on the mie bund, and Lombok ami I'elebeH mi the other, 

 all the hind Ui the left or west of this Hue Wing Lu-sij^ncti to A^ia, all 

 the rest to Australia. 



As the western (Wallace's " Indo-Malayan 1 ') division mainly on a 

 shallow sub-marine plateau , which xehlom exceeds 40, and nowhere readies 

 1 1 1 i>ri ■ tlnni l-Hi la: In..-] 1 1 s t ar-l is* il-i IN-rii aiul fauna ulsa earresjumd nn the 

 whole to those of southern A Bin, it seems in every way Tvasonaldo to regard 

 this division li Itetonghig to the Asiatic mainland, whether detached Iit>tti 

 it by subsidence, nr loosely attached to it Uy upheaval iu poM- in iocene 

 times, It comprise-H the L'rulip|dlieK <\n*i die On Jiti-r Smidii Islands, diftt 

 is, Bomen, Sumatra, and .fiiVa, widi nil llm ;nl j:n ■-□it i«des, together with 

 Buli, westernmost of t he Lesser Bttod* I ■lauds, or considerably more than 

 half of the whole region. 



But there :tre weighty reaM.iis ivliii li militate ncjunM tlie view tliut 

 assign* the pastern (Wa!lac£»'n " A ustro^ Malayan ") division indiscriminately 

 to Australia- Hens many of the Islands, notably C Y|i lies mid iis numerous 

 -dependencies In the cast, lie not on a submarine plateau in shallow waters, 

 hut in a very deep tuner hashi + ranging from Ktitne GOO to 4000 fathoms 

 and ujtwards. In fact, tho Celebes and Bnnda Seas, north and south of 

 Celebes, are hy fur the deepest of all these inland valets, jointly constitut- 

 ing a profound abyns, in some parts over 700 miles wide, which Hows from 

 tin! Indian to tliu North Pacific Oceau. between Ihc Asiatic and Australian 

 submarine plateaux west ami east. It stretches from Bali eastward* to 

 Timor, ami even to Tirnor-luut, so that the 100 fathom line indicating the 

 extreme limits of the Australian submarine plateau mm at a comparatively 

 short distance, from the mainland in this direction. Further east, however, 

 the Arofura Sea, between Australia and New Guinea, cornea entirely within 

 these limits, and as their fauna and flora also largely correspond, Sew 

 Guinea und its dependencies must in any ease he assigned to the Australian 

 wotkL In the witih' division nny further be convenientlv included all the 

 Leaser Snnda Islands exeept Bafi, for although washed fjy deep seas, this 

 volcanic and no doubt comparatively tt&mt group has received moat of 

 its animal and vegetabha species not" from the neighbouring Asiatic, but 

 from cite more remote Australian section. In the Austro- Malayan division 

 will tin ni.it.- \t- mmjiii-.-d New Guinea, Mith die :nijai Liit western islands 

 of Woigioti, Sulwalty, My sol, Aru, ftc ; and of thu Lei$ser Sundu group, 

 Lamlwk, Sumhawa, Ftoiis, Clnuidana, Timur t Timor-liiut, and intervening 

 i-lih, 



There remaiiu* the great island of Oelebes, with ii« immediate and more 

 remote eastern depcuiTendi'Si, Mnna, Bolt ton, Sula t Buru, Oatm t .Tilolo, 

 B:Hliail. \''-, llliit i*. if.e Miilmra aint I Sail da primps. Tliese (H-i'llJiy the 

 voy kiltie of the Eusteiti.An bipeliigo Aidwiy between the Aiuutie. and 



