cti.i.p. XL,] IN THE MALAY ARCIHPELAGO. 593 



x\w, ixniiiuil productions of tlie same eomitry, which I have 

 already so fully exphiiued and illustrated. The dividing 

 lines do iidL, it is true, exactly a^«ree ; l>ut I think it is a 

 reniarkahle fact, and something more than a mere coinci- 

 dence, that they should traverse the same district and 

 approach each other so closely as they do. If, however, 

 I am right in ray supposition that the region where the 

 dividin<5 line of the Indo-lMayan and Austro- Malayan 

 regions of zoqIq^ can now he ilra\m, was formerly occu- 

 pied by a much AviJer sea than at present, and if man 

 existed on the earth at that period, we shall see good 

 reason why the races iiihabitinjT the Asiatic and Pacific 

 areas shoidd now meet and partially intermingle in the 

 vicinity of that dividing line. 



It has recently heen niainttiined hy Professor Huxley, 

 that the Papuans are more closely allied to the negroes of 

 Africa than to any other racse. The resemldance both 

 in physical and mental characteristics liad often struck 

 myself, but the difficulties in the way of accepting it as 

 probable or possible, have hitherto prevented me from 

 giving full weight to those resemblances. Geograpliical, 

 zoological, and ethnological considerations render it almost 

 certain, that if these two races ever had a conmion origin, 

 it could only have been at a period far more remote than 

 any which has yet been assigned to tlie antiquity of the 

 human race. And oven if their unity conld be proved, it 

 woidd in no way affect my argument for the close affiriity 

 of the Papuan and Polynesian races, and the radical 

 distinctness of both from the Malay. 



Polynesia is pixj-eniinently an area of subsidence, and 

 its great wide-spreiid groups of coral-reefs mark out the 

 position of former continents and islands. The rich and 

 varied, yet strangely isolated productions of Australia and 

 New Guinea, also indicate au extensive continent where 

 such specialized forms were developed. The i-aces of men 

 now inhabiting these countries are, therefore, most pro- 

 bably the descendants of the races wliich inhabited these 

 continents and Lslands. This is the most simple and 

 natural supfiosition to make. And if we find any signs 

 of direct aliiuity between the inhabitants of any other 

 part of the world and those of Polymiaia, it by no means 



