CHAP. XIX ] 



THE MADAGASCAR GROUP. 



399 



what seems an easy solution of a difficult problem, and has 

 received an appropriate and easily remembered name, long after 

 it has been proved to be untenable. 



It is now more than four years since I first showed, by a 

 careful examination of all the facts to be accounted for, that 

 the hypothesis of a Lemurian continent was alike unnecessary 

 to explain one portion of the facts, and inadequate to explain 

 the remaining portion.^ Since that time I have seen no 

 attempt even to discuss the question on general grounds in 

 opposition to my views, nor on the other hand have those who 

 have hitherto supported the hypothesis taken any opportunity 

 of acknowledging its weakess and inutility. I have therefore 

 here explained my reasons for rejecting it somewhat more fully 

 and in a more popular form, in the hope that a check may thus 

 be placed on the continued re-statement of this unsound theory 

 as if it were one of the accepted conclusions of modern science. 



The Mascarene Islands.'^ — In the Geographical Distribution of 

 Animals, a summary is given of all that was known of the 

 zoology of the various islands near Madagascar, which to some ex- 

 tent partake of its peculiarities, and with it form the Malagasy 

 sub-region of the Ethiopian region. As no great additions have 

 since been made to our knowledge of the fauna of these islands, 

 and my object in this volume being more especially to illustrate 

 the mode of solving distributional problems by means of the 

 most suitable examples, I shall now confine myself to pointing 

 out how far the facts presented by these outlying islands 

 support the views already enunciated with regard to the origin 

 of the Madagascar fauna. 



The Comoro Islands. — This group of islands is situated 

 nearly midway between the northern extremity of Madagascar 

 and the coast of Africa. The four chief islands vary between 

 sixteen and forty miles in length, the largest being 180 miles from 

 the coast of Africa, while one or two smaller islets are less than 

 100 miles from Madagascar. All are volcanic. Great Comoro being 



^ GeograpMcal Distrihut'ion of Animals, Vo]. I., p. 272 — 292. 



2 The term " Mascarene is used here in an extended sense, to include 

 all the islands near Madagascar which resemble it in their animal and 

 vegetable productions. 



