The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations ...

;chap, xii.] THE ORIENTAL REGION. 359countries by arms of the sea rather wider than at present,might have left Banca isolated, as already referred to, with itsproportion of the common fauna to be, in a few instancessubsequently modified.Thus we are enabled to understand how the special relationsof the species of these islands to each other may have beenbrought about To account for their more deep-seated andgeneral zoological features, we must go farther back.Probable Origin of the Malayan Fauna.—The typical Malayanfauna is essentially an equatorial one, and must have beenelaborated in an extensive equatorial area. This ancient landalmost certainly extended northward over the shallow sea as farasthe island of Palawan, the Paracels shoals and even Hainan.To the east, it may at one time have included the Philippinesand Celebes, but not the Moluccas. To the south it was limitedby the deep sea beyond Java. It included all Sumatra and theNicobar islands, and there is every reason to believe that itstretched out also to the west so as to include the central peakof Ceylon, the Maldive isles, and the Cocos islands west ofSumatra. We should then have an area as extensive as SouthAmerica to 15° south latitude, and well calculated to developthat luxuriant fauna and flora which has since spread to theHimalayas. The submergence of the western half of this area(leaving only a fragment in Ceylon) would greatly diminish thenumber of animals and perhaps extinguish some peculiar typesbut the remaining portion would still form a compact and extensivedistrict, twice as large as the peninsula of India, over thewhole of which a uniform Malayan fauna would prevail.Thefirst important change would be the separation of Celebes ;and':his was probably effected by a great subsidence, forming the deepstrait that now divides that island from Borneo. During theprocess Celebesitself was no doubt greatly submerged, leavingonly a few islands in which were preserved that remnant of theancient Malayan fauna that now constitutes one of its moststriking and anomalous features. The Philippine area wouldnext be separated, and perhaps be almost wholly submerged ;or