42 
PROOFS OF EVOLUTION. 
Mesozoic age. The answer is inevitable. This 
great island, though doubtless once joined to Asia, 
lies in complete isolation, thus shutting out the 
migration of fierce animals; and those now there 
have changed but little from earlier types. The 
reason for this lagging development is the com¬ 
parative absence of that fierce struggle for exist¬ 
ence, which elsewhere prevails. No lion is there 
to frighten and destroy the kangaroo; no howling 
wolves to chase the monotrema. Australia is 
monkey-less and ape-less, although these animals 
abound elsewhere in like climates. Wherever the 
battle for life has been strongest, there we find 
the greatest progress and variety of development. 
The dwellers of mid-ocean islands have an easy, 
lazy time of it. “Far from the madding crowd’s 
ignoble strife, they kept the noiseless tenor of 
their way.” 
As Mr. Wallace remarks: “We find the con¬ 
tinental islands inhabited by animal life more or 
less similar to that of the mainland, according to 
time and distance of the separation.” All these 
facts are in perfect harmony with the theory of 
Evolution, and utterly at variance with any other 
hypothesis whatsoever. From the first dawning 
