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 animal
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 existed 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 not we believe
in its existence in the exact form here indicated, the student of
geographical distribution must see in the extraordinary and isolated
productions of Celebes, proof of the former existence of some continent
from whence the ancestors of these creatures, and of many other
intermediate forms, could have been derived.
In this short sketch of the most striking peculiarities of the Natural
History of Celebes, I have been obliged to enter much into details that
I fear will have been uninteresting to the general reader, but unless I
had done so, my exposition would have lost much of its force and value.
It is by these details alone that I have been able to prove the unusual
features that Celebes presents to us. Situated in the very midst of an
Archipelago, and closely hemmed in on every side by islands teeming with
varied forms of life, its productions have yet a surprising amount of
individuality. While it is poor in the actual number of its species, it
is yet wonderfully rich in peculiar forms, many of which are singular
or beautiful, and are in some cases absolutely unique upon the globe. We
behold here the curious phenomenon of groups of insects changing their
outline in a similar manner when compared with those of surrounding
islands, suggesting some common cause which never seems to have acted
elsewhere in exactly the same way. Celebes, therefore, presents us with
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