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Thus, the elephants and the camels appear to have descended from what were once exclusively American types, while the opossums were as certainly European. Many groups, however, never passed out of the continent in which they originated-the civets, hyænas, and the giraffes being wholly eastern, while the Oreodontida and Brontotheridae were no less exclusively western.

South America seems to have been united to the northern continent once at least in Secondary or early Tertiary times, since it was inhabited in the Eocene period by many forms of mammalia, such as rodents, felines, and some ancient forms of Ungulata. It must also have possessed the ancestors of the Edentata (though they have not yet been discovered), or we should not find such a variety of strange and gigantic forms of this order in later Tertiary deposits in this part of the world only. During the greater part of the Tertiary period, therefore, South America must have been separated from the North and protected from incursions of the higher forms of mammalia which were there so abundant. Thus only does it seem possible to understand the unchecked development of so many large but comparatively helpless animals as the Edentata of the Pampas and the Brazilian caves-a development only comparable with that of the Australian marsupials, still more completely shut off from all competition with higher forms of life.

In Africa the evidence of a long period of insulation is somewhat more complex and less easily apparent, but, it seems to me, equally conclusive. We have first, the remarkable fauna of Madagascar, in which lemurs and insectivora predominate, with a few low forms of

carnivora; but none of the higher animals, such as apes, antelopes, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, elephants, lions, leopards, and hyænas, which swarm on the continent. The separation of Madagascar from Africa must therefore have occurred before these important groups existed there. Now, we know that all these large animals lived in Europe and Asia during late Miocene times, while lemurs are only known there during the Eocene period, and were probably more abundant in late Mesozoic times. It is almost certain, therefore, that Southern Africa must have been cut off from Europe and Asia during the whole intervening period, or the same development of high forms and extinction of low would have gone on in the one country as in the other. The persistence of a number of low and isolated types in South and West Africa, which are probably a remnant of the ancient fauna of the country, is also favourable to this view. At the time we are considering, therefore, we look upon tropical and South Africa, with Madagascar, as forming a completely isolated land or archipelago ; while the Seychelles and Chagos banks, with Bourbon and Mauritius, perhaps, formed another island or group permanently separated from the larger masses. The extra-tropical portion of South Africa was also probably more extensive, affording an area in which its remarkable flora was being developed.

Turning to Australia, we should probably find it, at this remote period, more extensive than it is now, including in its area New Guinea and some of the adjacent islands, as well as Tasmania; while another extensive land probably occupied the site of the New Zealand group. It may be considered certain that,

whatever elevations and subsidences these countries may have undergone, they have not been connected either with Asia, Africa, or South America during the whole Tertiary period.

In conclusion, I would especially remark that the various changes in the outlines and mutual relations of our continents, which I have now endeavoured to establish, must not be supposed to have been all strictly contemporaneous. Some may have been a little earlier or a little later than others; some changes may have been slower, others more rapid; some may have had but a short duration, while others may have persisted through considerable geological periods. But, notwithstanding this uncertainty as to details, the great features of the geographical revolutions which I have indicated, appear to be established by a mass of concurring evidence; and the lesson they teach us is, that although almost the whole of what is now dry land has undoubtedly once lain deep beneath the waters of the ocean, yet such changes on a great scale are excessively slow and gradual; so that, when compared with the highest estimates of the antiquity of the human race, or even with that of most of the higher animals, our existing continents and oceans may be looked upon as permanent features of the earth's surface.

ERRATUM.

Ar page 59 I have said that there are only three or four species of Mimosa which are sensitive. This is a mistake, as the greater portion of the species in the extensive genus Mimosa, as well as some species of several other genera of Leguminosa, and also of Oxalidaceæ, possess this curious property. I cannot find, however, that any one has suggested in what way the sensitiveness may have been useful to the species which first acquired it. My guess at an explanation may therefore induce botanists who are acquainted with the various species in a state of nature, to suggest some better solution of the problem.

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Ancient races of North and South
America, 298

Andaman Islands, pale butterflies of,
260

white-marked birds of, 263
Anderson, Mr. W. Marshall, on cranium
from N. American mound, 296
Andes, very rich in humming-birds, 139
Animal colours, how produced, 184
life in tropical forests, 70
Anthribidæ, 95

Auts, wasps, and bees, 80

numbers of, in India and Malaya,
81-88

destructive to insect-specimens, 85
and vegetation, special relation
between, 89

Apatura and Heterochroa, resemblance
of species of, 257

Apes, 116

Aqueous vapour of atmosphere, its
influence on temperature, 9

quantity at Batavia and Clifton, 10
Arctic plants, large leaves of, 236
flowers and fruits brightly coloured,

237

Areca palm, 45

Arenga saccharifera, 43

Argus-pheasant, wonderful plumage of,

205

Arums, 48

Assai of the Amazon, 43

Auckland Isles, handsome flowers of,
238

Audubon, on the ruby humming-birds,
130, 137

Australian Region, mammalia of, 340
birds of, 340

extinct fauna of, 341

its supposed union with S. America,
341

Azara, on food of humming-birds, 135

BAMBOOS, 52

B.

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Bark, varieties of in tropical forests, 33
Barometer, range of, at Batavia, 24
Batavia, Meteorology of, 4

and London, diagram of mean
temperatures, 5

greatest rainfall at, 24
range of barometer at, 24

Bates, Mr. on climate at the Equator, 24

on scarcity of forest-flowers on
Amazon, 61

on animal life in Amazon valley, 70
on abundance of butterflies at Ega,
75

on importance of study of butter-
flies, 78

on leaf-cutting ants, 86
on blind ants, 88

on bird-catching spider, 97

on use of toucan's bill, 106

on large serpents, 115

on the habits of humming-birds,

132

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