328 
ANIMALS OF EGA. 
Chap. Y. 
Asia by a shallow sea, whilst they are separated from 
New Guinea by a channel of very deep water ; the 
shallow sea pointing to a former, but recent, union of the 
lands which it connects, the deep channel a complete 
and enduring severance of the lands which it separates. 
Now, with regard to monkeys, these four land masses 
seem to have had these animals allotted to them in 
the most capricious way possible, if we are to take 
for granted that the species were arbitrarily created 
on the lands where they are now found. Australia, with 
soil and climate as well adapted fcu^ Baboons as Africa, 
where they abound, and New Guinea, with rich humid 
forests as suitable for Orangs and Gibbons as the very 
similar island of Borneo, have, neither of them, a single 
species of native monkey. Madagascar possesses only 
Lemurs, the most lowly-organised group of apes, 
although the neighbouring continent of Africa contains 
numerous species of all families of Old World apes. 
America, as we have seen, has no Lemurs, and not a 
single representative of the Old World groups of the 
order, but is well peopled by genera and species belonging 
to two distinct groups peculiar to the continent. Lastly, 
the Old World continental mass, with a few anomalous 
forms of Lemurs scattered here and there, is the exclu- 
sive home of the whole of the Pithecidse family, which 
presents a series of forms graduating from the debased 
Baboon to the Gorilla, which some zoologists consider 
to approach near to man in his organisation. 
What does all this mean ? Why are the different 
forms apportioned in this way to the various lands of 
the earth ? Why is Australia with New Guinea desti- 
