OHAP. 1.] 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



15 



deer (which have probably been recently introduce 1) in 

 Celebes and the Moluccas. The birds which are most 

 abundant in the Western Islands are woodpeckers, barbets, 

 trogons, ftuit-thmshes, and loaf-tbnishes ; they are seen 

 daily, and form the great ornithological features of the 

 country. In the Eastern Islands these are absolutely 

 miknown, honeysnckera and small lories being the most 

 common birds ; so that the natumlist feels himself in a 

 new world, and can hartUy realize that he has passed from 

 the one redon to the other in a few davs, without ever 

 being out of sight of land. 



The inference that we must ibaw from these facta is 

 undoutitedly, that the whole of the islands eastwards 

 beyond Java and Bonieo do essentially form a part of 

 a former Australian or Pacific continent, although some 

 of them may never have been actually joined to it. This 

 continent must have been broken np not only before the 

 Western Islands were separated frcmi Asia, Init probably 

 before the extreme south -eastern portion of Asia was 

 raised above the waters of the ocean ; for a gi-eat part of 

 the land of Borneo and Java is known to be geologically 

 of quite recent formation, while the very great difterence 

 of species, and in many cases of genera also, between the 

 productions of the Eastern ilalay Islands and Australia, 

 as well as the great depth of the sea now separating theni^ 

 all point to a comparatively long period of isolation. 



It is interesting to observe among the islands them- 

 selves, how a shallow sea always intimates a recent land- 

 connexion. The Ai-u Islands, llysol, and Waigiou, ai« 

 well as Jobie, agree with New Guinea in their species of 

 mammalia and birds mnch more closely than they do with 

 the Jloluccns, and we find that tliey are all united to New 

 Gninea by a shallow sea. In fact, the 100-fathora line 

 round New Guinea marks out accurately the range of the 

 tTxiQ Paradise birds. 



It is further to be noted — and tltis is a very interesting 

 point in connexion with theories of the dependence of 

 special forms of life on external conditions — that this 

 division of the Archipelago into two regions characterised 

 by a striking divemty in their natural productions, does 

 not in any way correspond to tiie main physical oi 



