14 



TUB MJLdr ARCHIFELAGO. 



[chap. I. 



Islands do to Asia, It is well known that the natural 

 productions of Austmliii difl'er from tliose of Asia more 

 than tho<56 of any of the four ancient quarters of th<i 

 world differ from each other. Austraha, in fact, stands 

 alone; it possesses no apea or mookeya, no cats or ti^rs, 

 wolves^ bears, or hyenas ; no deer or antelopes, sheep or 

 oxen ; no elepliunt, hoi-se, squiiTel, or rabbit ; none, in 

 short, of those faniihai- types of quadruped which are met 

 with in every other part of the world. Instead of these^ 

 it has jMarsupials only, kangaroos and oposauma, wombats 

 and the duck-billed Platypus. In birds it is almost aa 

 |]ec«liar. It has no woodpeckers and no pheasants, 

 families which exist in every other part of the world ; but 

 instead of them it has the motmd-makiag brash-turkeys, 

 the honeysuckers, the cockatoos, and the brush-to ngiied 

 lories, whicii are found nowhere else upon the globe. All 

 these striking ]:>eculiarities are found also in those islands 

 which form tlie Austro-Malayan division of the Archi- 

 pelago. 



The great contrast between the two divisions of the 

 Arcliipclago is nowhei-e so abniptly exhibited as on pass-- 

 ing from the island of Bali to that of I^ombock, where the 

 two regions are in closest proximitj'. In Bali vfe have 

 baibets, fruit-thrnshes, and woodpeckers ; on passiug over 

 to Lombock these ai-e seen no more, but we have abimd- 

 ance of cockatoos, honeysuckers, and lu-ush-tnrkevs, which 

 are equally unknown in Btili,* or any island fuitlier west. 

 The strait is here fifteen miles wide, so that we may pass 

 in two houi's from one gi'eat division of the earth to 

 another, di tiering as essentially in their animal life as 

 Europe does from America. If we travel fiom Java or 

 Borneo tc> Celebes or the Moluccas, the difference is stiU 

 more striking. In the first, the forests abound in monkeys 

 of many kinds, wild cats, deer, civets, and otters, and 

 numerous varieties of squirrels are constantly met mth. 

 In the latter none of these occur; but the prehensile- 

 tailed Cuscus is ahiiost the only terrestrial mammal seen, 

 except wUd pigs, w^hich are found in all the islands, and 



1 I w.'ia informed, liowevor, tliat tliero wcrfl a few cockatoos at one spot 

 on tho west of Biili, Bhowiug that tlitf intcnitiugling of the proUmjtiooa cf 

 these iskjxJii is now going ou. 



