270 



NAfUBAL HISTORT 



fcHAr. XV 121 



CHAPTER XYIIL 



KATDHAL HISTORT OP CELEBES, 



aIHE position of Celebes is the most central in tha 

 • Archipelago. Immediately to the north are tlie Pliilip- 

 ptne islands; on the west is Borneo; on the east are tlie 

 Molucca islands; and on the south is the Timor gToiip : 

 and it is on all sides so connected with these ishuids hy 

 its own satellites, by small islets, and by coral reefs, tliat 

 neither by inspection on the map nor by actual observa- 

 tion around its coast, is it possible to det<?rmine accurately 

 wliich shotild be grouped with it, and whicli with the 

 surrounding districts. Such being the ease, we should 

 luiturally expect to find, tinvt the pmductious of this central 

 ivsland in sonie degree represented the richness and variety 

 ijf the Mdiole Archipelago, while we should not expect 

 Tiiuch individuality in a country, so situated, that it would 

 seem as if it were pre-eminently fitted to receive stragi^dei's 

 and immigrants from idl around. 



As so often happens in nature, however, the fact turns 

 out to be just ihe revei-se of what we should have ex* 

 pected; and an examination of its animal productions, 

 shows Celebes to be at once the poorest in the number of 

 its specios, and the most isolated in the character of its 

 productions, of all the great islands in the Archipelago. 

 With its attendant islets it spreads over an extent of sea 

 har-dly inferior in length and breadth to that occupied by 

 Ikirneo, while ita actual land area is nearly double that 

 of Java; yet its Mammalia and terrestrial birds number 

 scarcely more than half the species found in the last- 

 named island. Its position is such that it could i-eceive 

 immigrants from every side more readily than Java, yet 

 in proportion to the species ^vhich inhabit it far fewer 

 seem derived from other islands, while far more are 

 altogether peculiar to it ; and a considerable number of its 

 animal forms are so renmrkable, as to find no close allies in 

 any other part of the world* I now propose to examine 



