Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the earth were, by natural means, brought into proximity. No two parts of the world differ so
radically in their productions as Asia and Australia, but the difference between Africa and
South America is also very great, and these two regions will well serve to illustrate the ques-
tion we are considering. On the one side we have baboons, lions, elephants, buffaloes, and
giraffes; on the other spider-monkeys, pumas, tapirs, ant-eaters, and sloths; while among
birds, the hornbills, turacos, orioles, and honeysuckers of Africa contrast strongly with the
toucans, macaws, chatterers, and humming-birds of America.
Now let us endeavour to imagine (what it is very probable may occur in future ages) that
a slow upheaval of the bed of the Atlantic should take place, while at the same time
earthquake-shocks and volcanic action on the land should cause increased volumes of sedi-
ment to be poured down by the rivers, so that the two continents should gradually spread out
by the addition of newly-formed lands, and thus reduce the Atlantic which now separates
them to an arm of the sea a few hundred miles wide. At the same time we may suppose is-
lands to be upheaved in mid-channel; and, as the subterranean forces varied in intensity, and
shifted their points of greatest action, these islands would sometimes become connected
with the land on one side or other of the strait, and at other times again be separated from it.
Several islands would at one time be joined together, at another would be broken up again,
till at last, after many long ages of such intermittent action, we might have an irregular ar-
chipelago of islands filling up the ocean channel of the Atlantic, in whose appearance and
arrangement we could discover nothing to tell us which had been connected with Africa and
which with America. The animals and plants inhabiting these islands would, however, cer-
tainly reveal this portion of their former history. On those islands which had ever formed a
part of the South American continent we should be sure to find such common birds as chat-
terers and toucans and humming-birds, and some of the peculiar American quadrupeds;
while on those which had been separated from Africa, hornbills, orioles, and honeysuckers
would as certainly be found. Some portion of the upraised land might at different times have
had a temporary connexion with both continents, and would then contain a certain amount
of mixture in its living inhabitants. Such seems to have been the case with the islands of
Celebes and the Philippines. Other islands, again, though in such close proximity as Bali
and Lombock, might each exhibit an almost unmixed sample of the productions of the con-
tinents of which they had directly or indirectly once formed a part.
In the Malay Archipelago we have, I believe, a case exactly parallel to that which I have
here supposed. We have indications of a vast continent, with a peculiar fauna and flora, hav-
ing been gradually and irregularly broken up; the island of Celebes probably marking its
furthest westward extension, beyond which was a wide ocean. At the same time Asia ap-
