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Show 90 DISTRIBUTION OP The Indian archipelago presents peculiar phe~omena i.n regard to its indigenous mammalia, which. in the1r .generic character, recede in some respects from that of the. ammals of the Indian continent, and approximate to the Afncan. The Sunda isles contain a hippopotamus, which is wanting in the rivers of Asia; Sumatra, a peculiar species of tapir, and a rhinoceros resembling the African more than the Indian species, but specifically distinguishable from both * • . . . Beyond the Indian archipelago is an extens1ve reg10n, m .. cludi~Jg New Guinea, New Britain, and New Ireland, together with the archipelago of Solomon's islands, the New Hebrides, anr. Louisiade, and the more remote groups of isles in the great southern ocean, which may be considered as forming one zoo .. logical province. Although these remarkable countries are extremely fertile in their vegetable productions, they are almost wholly destitute of native warm-blooded quadrupeds, except a few species of bats, and some domesticated animals in the pos· session of the natives t. Quadrupeds found on islands situated near the continents, generally form a part of the stock of animals belonging to the adjacent main land; "but small islands remote from continents are in general altogether destitute of rland quadrupeds, except such as appear to have been conve)[ed to them by men. Kerguelen's Land, Juan Fernandez, the Gallapagos, and the Isles de Lobos, are examples of this fact. Among all the groups of fertile islands in the Pacific ocean, no quadrupeds have been found, except dogs, hogs, rats, and a few bats. The bats have been found in New Zealand and the more westerly groups; they may probably have made their way along the chain of islands which extend from the shores of New Guinea far into the southern Pacific. The hogs and the dogs appear to have been conveyed by the natives from New Guinea. The Indian isles, near New Guinea, abound in oxen, buffaloes, goats,.deer, hogs, dogs, cats, and rats; but none of them are said to have • Prichard, Phya. Hillt. of Mankind, p. 66; Cuvier, Ann. du Museum, tom. vii. t Prichard, ibid., p. 56. .Cb. VI.] MAMMIFEROUB QUADRUPEDS. 91 reached New Guinea, except th~ hog and the dog. The New Guinea hog is of the Chinese variety, and was probably brought from some of the neighbouring isles, being the animal most in request among savages. It has run wild in New Guinea. Thence it has been conveyed to the New Hebrides, the Tonga and Society isles, and to the Marquesas; but it is still wanting in the more easterly islands, and. to the southward, in New Caledonia. "Dogs may be traced from New Guinea to the New Hebrides and Fiji isles; but they are wanting in the Tonga isles, though found among the Society and Sandwich islanders, by some of whom they are used for food : to the southward they have been conveyed to New Caledonia and New Zealand. In Easter Island, the most remotely situated in this ocean, there are no domestic animals except fowls and rats, which are eaten by the natives t these animals are found in most of the islands; the fowls are probably from New Guinea. Rats are to be found even on some desert islands, whither they may have been conveyed by canoes which have occasionally approached the shores. It is known, also, that rats occasionally swim in large numbers to considerable distances • ." It is natural to suppose that the geographical range of the different species of cetacea should be less correctly ascertained than that of the terrestrial mammifers. It is, however, well known, that the whales which are obtained by our £shers in the South Seas, are distinct from those of the North; and the same dissimilarity has been found in all the other marine animals of the same class, so far as they have yet been studied by · · naturalists. Let us now inquire what facilities the various land quadrupeds enjoy of spreading themselves over the surface of the earth. In the £rst place, as their numbers multiply, all of them, whether they feed on plants, or prey on other animals, are disposed to scatter themselves gradually over as wide an area as is accessible to them, But before th~y have extended their • Pri~~ard~, Phys. Hist. of Mankind, vol. i., p1 75, I C ' ~ |