MALAYSIA AND THE PACIFIC ARCHIPELAGOES 
11 
elephants, wild cattle, rhinoceros, and others ; all of which 
in the Australian region are unknown. It belongs, 
in fact, zoologically speaking, to tropical Asia, and pos¬ 
sesses almost all the various forms of life found in Siam 
and Burmah, although the actual species are to a large 
extent peculiar. 
Plants are equally interesting. The flora of Malaysia 
proper is a special development of that prevailing from 
the Himalayas to the Malay Peninsula and South China. 
Farther east this flora intermingles with that of Australia. 
The latter, it may he remarked incidentally, is very 
peculiar and markedly rich in species, while that of New 
Zealand is poor, though perhaps even more highly differ¬ 
entiated. 
7. Geological Relations and Past History. 
The western portion of the Australasian Archipelago, 
as far as Java, Borneo, and perhaps the Philippines, has 
undoubtedly, at a comparatively recent period, formed a 
south-eastern extension of the Asiatic continent. This 
is indicated by the exceedingly shallow sea separating 
these islands from the mainland, but still more clearly 
by the essential unity of their animals and plants of 
which we have just spoken. But, as we go farther east 
to the Moluccas, New Guinea, and Australia, we have to 
pass over seas of enormous depth, and there find our¬ 
selves among a set of animals for the most part totally 
unlike those of the Asiatic continent, or of any other 
part of the globe. Yet these have certain resemblances 
to the fauna of Europe during the Secondary period of 
geology, and it is very generally believed that the 
countries they now inhabit have been almost completely 
isolated since the time of the Oolitic formation. 
