466 
GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. 
[part IV. 
Trachinidae possesses a fresh-water genus, Aphritis , one species 
of which inhabits Tasmania, and two others Patagonia; the 
Haplochitonidse (2 genera, 3 sp.) are found only in Tierra del 
Fuego, the Falkland Islands, and South Australia; and the 
Galaxidae (1 genus, 12 sp.) inhabit the same regions, but extend 
to Chili, to New Zealand and to Queensland. We have here an 
illustration of that connection between South America and 
Australia which is so strongly manifested in plants, but of which 
there are only scattered indications in most classes of animals. 
The dividing line across the Malay Archipelago, separating the 
Oriental from the Australian regions, and which is so strikingly 
marked in mammalia and birds, is equally so in fresh-water 
fishes. No less than six families have their eastern limits in 
Java and Borneo ; while the extensive family of Cyprinidse has 
no less than 23 genera in Java and Borneo, but not a single 
species has been found in Celebes or the Moluccas. 
The distribution of fresh- water fishes lends no support to the 
view that the peninsula of India belongs to the Ethiopian 
region. A large proportion of the Oriental families are common 
to the whole region ; while there is hardly a single example, of 
a characteristic Ethiopian family or genus extending into the 
peninsula of India and no further. 
Among the special peculiarities of distribution, is the curious 
fish, forming the family Comephoridse, which is confined to Lake 
Baikal, among the mountains of Central Asia, 2,000 feet above 
the sea, and a thousand miles distant from the ocean ; yet 
having its nearest allies in the exclusively oceanic family of the 
mackerels (Scomberidse). The Characinidse are confined to Africa 
and South America, distinct genera inhabiting each region. The 
Salmonidae are confined to the two northern regions, except a 
single species of a peculiar genus in New Zealand. The genus 
Osteoglossum has a species in South America, another in the 
Sunda Islands, and a third in Queensland ; while the curious 
Sirenoidei are represented by single species of peculiar genera 
in Tropical America, Tropical Africa, and Tropical Australia. 
Fossil Fishes . — Fishes have existed from a very remote era, 
and it is remarkable that the first whose remains have been dis- 
