Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Finches, are all found in the Moluccas as well as in Borneo and Java,—but not a single spe-
cies belonging to any one of them is found in Celebes. Among insects, the large genus of
Rose-chafers, Lomaptera, is found in every country and island between India and New
Guinea, except Celebes. This unexpected absence of many groups, from one limited district
in the very centre of their area of distribution, is a phenomenon not altogether unique, but, I
believe, nowhere so well marked as in this case; and it certainly adds considerably to the
strange character of this remarkable island.
The anomalies and eccentricities in the natural history of Celebes which I have endeav-
oured to sketch in this chapter, all point to an origin in a remote antiquity. The history of ex-
tinct animals teaches us, that their distribution in time and in space are strikingly similar.
The rule is, that just as the productions of adjacent areas usually resemble each other
closely, so do the productions of successive periods in the same area; and as the productions
of remote areas generally differ widely, so do the productions of the same area at remote
epochs. We are therefore led irresistibly to the conclusion, that change of species, still more
of generic and of family form, is a matter of time. But time may have led to a change of spe-
cies in one country, while in another the forms have been more permanent, or the change
may have gone on at an equal rate but in a different manner in both. In either case the
amount of individuality in the productions of a district, will be to some extent a measure of
the time that district has been isolated from those that surround it. Judged by this standard,
Celebes must be one of the oldest parts of the Archipelago. It probably dates from a period
not only anterior to that when Borneo, Java, and Sumatra were separated from the continent,
but from that still more remote epoch when the land that now constitutes these islands had
not risen above the ocean. Such an antiquity is necessary, to account for the number of an-
imal forms it possesses, which show no relation to those of India or Australia, but rather
with those of Africa; and we are led to speculate on the possibility of there having once ex-
isted a continent in the Indian Ocean which might serve as a bridge to connect these distant
countries. Now it is a curious fact, that the existence of such a land has been already thought
necessary, to account for the distribution of the curious Quadrumana forming the family of
the Lemurs. These have their metropolis in Madagascar, but are found also in Africa, in
Ceylon, in the peninsula of India, and in the Malay Archipelago as far as Celebes, which is
its furthest eastern limit. Dr. Sclater
*
has proposed for the hypothetical continent connecting
these distant points, and whose former existence is indicated by the Mascarene islands and
the Maldive coral group, the name of Lemuria. Whether or no we believe in its existence in
the exact form here indicated, the student of geographical distribution must see in the ex-
traordinary and isolated productions of Celebes, proofs of the former existence of some con-
