reign representative, being found, as we might
from analogy have anticipated, in the nearest main land. Had the species
of quadrupeds in Madagascar agreed with those of the contiguous parts of
Africa, as do those of England with the rest of Europe, the naturalist
would have inferred that there had been a land communication since the
period of the coming in of the existing quadrupeds, whereas we may now
conclude that the Mozambique channel has constituted an insuperable
barrier to the fusion of the continental fauna with that of the great
island during the whole period that has elapsed since the living species
were created.

5thly. Another of the great nations of terrestrial mammalia is that of
_India_, containing a great variety of peculiar forms, such as the
sloth-bear (_Prochilus_), the musk-deer (_Moscus_), the nylghau, the
gibbon or long-armed ape, and many others.

6thly. A portion of the islands of the _Indian archipelago_ might,
perhaps, be considered by some geologists as an appendage of the same
province. In fact, we find in the large islands of Java, Sumatra, and
Borneo, the same genera, for the most part, as on the continent of
India, and some of the same species, _e. g._ the tapir (_Tapirus
Malayanus_), the rhinoceros of Sumatra, and some others. Most of the
species, however, are distinct, and each island has many, and even a few
genera, peculiar to itself. Between eighty and ninety species are known
to inhabit Java, and nearly the same number occur in Sumatra. Of these,
more than half are common to the two islands. Borneo, which is much less
explored, has yielded already upwards of sixty species, more than half
of which are met with either in Java or Sumatra. Of the species
inhabiting Sumatra and not found in Java, Borneo contains the greater
portion. Upon the whole, if these three large islands were united, and a
fusion of their respective indigenous mammalia should take place, they
would present a fauna related to that of continental India, and
comprising about as many species as we might expect from analogy to
discover in an area of equal extent. The Philippine Islands are peopled
with another assemblage of species generically related to the great
Indian type.

7thly. But the islands of Celebes, Amboina, Timor, and _New Guinea_,
constitute a different region of mammalia more allied to the Australian
type, as having an intermixture of marsupial quadrupeds, yet showing an
affinity also to the Indian in