86 
Introduction: Wallace’s line. 
debatable land between the Oriental and Australian Regions, but more properly 
attributable to the former”. 
W. H. Flower & R. Lydekker, in 1891 (Introd. to the Study of Mammals 
p. 102), regard Celebes as the typical representative of the Austro-Malayan tran- 
sitional region or sub -region, but they do not define it and do not recur to 
Wallace’s line (except on p. 97). 
P. A. van der Lith, 1893, gave (Nederl. Ost-Indie, 2. ed. I, 11) a sketch 
of the facts and views concerning the line, but was inclined not to adopt 
it. A very readable resume is to be found in J. F. van Bemmelen’s book: 
“Uit Indie”, 1895, p. 146 et seq. 
E. Haeckel in 1893 (“Zur Phylogenie der australischen Fauna” in Semon’s 
Zool. Forschungsreisen, I p. V) adopts the line without entering critically into 
this difficult and complicated question, though he presents us with the following 
astonishing affirmation: “An keinem anderen Punkte unserer Erde stehen zwei 
benachbarte Thiergebiete in so auffallendem Gegensatze, als auf der schmalen 
Grenze zwischen der indo-malayischen und austral -malayischen Region. Uber- 
schreiten wir die schmale Meerenge am Sudende dieser Grenze, die tiefe Lombok 
Strasse , so treten wir mit einem Male aus der Gegenwart in das mesozoische 
Zeitalter [!]. Obgleich die beiden Nachbar-Inseln Bali und Lombok nur wenige 
Meilen entfernt und im Allgemeinen denselben klimatischen Bedingungen unter- 
worfen sind, erscheint dennoch die charakteristische Landesfauna derselben ganz- 
lich verschieden; und noch mehr gilt das, wenn wir die Mangkassar Strasse 
iiberschreiten und von dem indischen Borneo nach dem australischen Celebes 
iibersetzen. Der durchgreifende Gegensatz ihrer Vogel- und Saugethier-Welt 
ist so gross, dass er zu den schlagendsten chorologischen Argumenten des Trans- 
formismus gerechnet w^erden muss.” (!) 
W. Haacke, 1893, simply adopts the line (Schopfung der Thierwelt” p. 238). 
A. Newton, also in 1893, (“A Dictionary of Birds”, p. 317' — 363, and Map 
facing p- 1), likewise accepts the line. Concerning Celebes he says: “To the 
Papuan Region may be assigned, though with doubt, the wonderful island of 
Celebes, presenting perhaps more anomalies than any other in the world, and 
yet anomalies which, by the use of strictly scientific inference (as Mr. Wallace 
has shewn us), may possibly tell a story that sounds so romantic and yet will 
satisfy those who judge it more severely”. 
R. B. Sharpe, likewise in 1893 (“On the Zoo-Geographical Areas of the 
World, illustrating the Distribution of Birds”: Natural Science III, 100 and map), 
applies the Wallace-line as western frontier to his Australian Region; he recognizes a 
Celebean Sub-Region, which, with the exception of the Sula Islands, coincides 
with our Celebesian area, and a Moluccan Sub-Region, comprising everything 
between Lombok, a line east of Celebes, New Guinea and Aru to the east, and 
Australia to the south. 
F. H. H. Guillemard, when editing Mr. Wallace’s “Australasia” in 1894, 
likewise appears to have neglected literature when he says (p. 347 — a passage 
