The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

14 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.the upraised land might at different times have had a temporaryconnexion with both continents, and would then containa certain amount of mixture in its living inhabitants.Such seems to have been the case with the islands of Celebesand the Philippines. Otlier islands, again, thougli in such closeproximity as Bali and Lombock, might each exhibit an almostunmixed sample of the ])roductions of the continents of whichthey had directly or indirectly once formed a part.In the Malay Archipelago we have, I believe, a case exactlyparallel to that which I have here supposed. We have indicationsof a vast continent, with a peculiar fauna and flora,having been gradually and irregularly broken up ; the islandof Celebes probably marking its furthest westward extension,beyond which was a wide ocean." At the same time Asia appearsto have been extending its limits in a south-east direction, firstin an unbroken mass, then separated into islands as we now seeit, and almost coming into actual contact with the scatteredfragments of the great southern land.From this outline of the subject, it will be evident how importantan adjunct Natural History is to Geology ; not onlyin interpreting the fragments of extinct animals found in theearth's crust, but in determining past changes in the surfacewhich have left no geological record. It is certainly a wonderfuland unexpected fact, that an accurate knowledge of thedistribution of birdo and insects should enable us to map outlands and continents which disappeared beneath the ocean longbeforethe earliest traditions of the human race. Whereverthe geologist can explore the earth's surface, he can read muchof its past history, and can determine approximately its latestmovements above and below the sea-level ; but wherever oceansand seas now extend, he can do nothing but speculate on thevery limited data afforded by the depth of the waters. Herethe naturalist steps in, and enables him to fill up this great gapin the past history of the eartli.One of the chief objects of my travels was to obtain evidenceof this natui'e ; and my searcli after such evidence has beenrewarded by great success, so that I have been enabled to traceout with some probability the past changes which one of themost interesting parts of the earth has undergone. It may bethouglit that the facts and generalizations here given, wouldhave been more approi:)riately placed at the end rather than attlie beginning of a narrative of the travels which supplied thefacts. In some cases this might be so, but I have found it impossibleto give such an account as I desire of the natural historyof the numerous islands and groups of islands in the Archipelago,without constant reference to these generalizations which add1 Further study of the subject has led me to conclude that Celebes never formedpart of the Austro-Mala.van land, but that it more probably indicates the furthest eastwardextension of the Asiatic continent at a very early period. {See the author's IslandLife, p. 427.)