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

4GG ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part hi.disappear during an entire rotation of the earth. During sucha period, tropical forms of marine animals would have been ableto spread north and south, into what are now cool latitudes ;andidentical genera, and even species, might then have ranged alongthe southern shores of the old Palsearctic continent, fromBritainto the Bay of Bengal, and southward along the Malayan coaststo Australia.Numerous Miocene plant-beds have alsobeen found in Victoria,saidcontaining abundance of Dicotyledonous leaves, which aregenerally to resemble those of the Asiatic flora, and of theMiocene plant-beds of the Khine.It is to be hoped these bedswill be more closely examined for remains of insects, land-shells,and vertebrates, and that the plants will be carefully preserved andcritically studied ; for here probably lies hidden the key, thatwill solve much of the mystery thatof the Australian fauna.attaches to the past history