Island Life; Or, The Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras. Alfred Russel Wallace

Limitations of Geological Time—Time Amply Sufficient both for Geological and Biological Development—Insular Faunas and Floras—The North Atlantic Islands—The Galapagos—St. Helena and the Sandwich Islands—Great Britain as a Recent Continental Island—Borneo and Java—Japan and Formosa—Madagascar as an Ancient Continental Island—Celebes and New Zealand as Anomalous Islands—The Flora of New Zealand and its Origin—The European Element in the South Temperate Floras—Concluding Remarks

      Pages 531-545

MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

       Table of Contents

	PAGE
1. Map showing the Distribution of the true Jays	Frontispiece.
2. Map showing the Zoological Regions	To face 31
3. Map showing the Distribution of Parus Palustris	To face 66
4. A Glacier with Moraines (From Sir C. Lyell's Principles of Geology)	109
5. Map of the Ancient Rhone Glacier (From Sir C. Lyell's Antiquity of Man)	110
6. Diagram showing the effects of Excentricity and Precession on Climate	127
7. Diagram of Excentricity and Precession	129
8. Map showing the Extent of the North and South Polar Ice	138
9. Diagram showing Changes of Excentricity during Three Million Years	171
10. Outline Map of the Azores	248
11. Map of Bermuda and the American Coast	263
12. Section of Bermuda and adjacent Sea-bottom	264
13. Map of the Galapagos and adjacent Coasts of South America	276
14. Map of the Galapagos	277
15. Map of the South Atlantic, showing position of St. Helena	293
16. Map of the Sandwich Islands	311
17. Map of the North Pacific, with its submerged Banks	312
18. Map showing the Bank connecting Britain with the Continent	333
19. Map of Borneo and Java, showing the Great Submarine Bank of South-Eastern Asia	373
20. Map of Japan and Formosa	392
21. Physical Sketch Map of Madagascar (From Nature)	413
22. Map of Madagascar Group, showing Depths of Sea	415
23. Map of the Indian Ocean	424
24. Map of Celebes and the surrounding Islands	451
25. Map showing Depths of Sea around Australia and New Zealand	471
26. Map showing the probable condition of Australia during the Cretaceous Epoch	496

ISLAND LIFE

       Table of Contents

PART I

       Table of Contents

THE DISPERSAL OF ORGANISMS

       Table of Contents

ITS PHENOMENA, LAWS, AND CAUSES

       Table of Contents

CHAPTER I

       Table of Contents

      INTRODUCTORY

      Remarkable Contrasts in distribution of Animals—Britain and Japan—Australia and New Zealand—Bali and Lombok—Florida and Bahama Islands—Brazil and Africa—Borneo, Madagascar, and Celebes—Problems in distribution to be found in every country—Can be solved only by the combination of many distinct lines of inquiry, biological and physical—Islands offer the best subjects for the study of distribution—Outline of the subjects to be discussed in the present volume.

      When an Englishman travels by the nearest sea-route from Great Britain to Northern Japan he passes by countries very unlike his own, both in aspect and natural productions. The sunny isles of the Mediterranean, the sands and date-palms of Egypt, the arid rocks of Aden, the cocoa groves of Ceylon, the tiger-haunted jungles of Malacca and Singapore, the fertile plains and volcanic peaks of Luzon, the forest-clad mountains of Formosa, and the bare hills of China, pass successively in review; till after a circuitous voyage of thirteen thousand miles he finds himself at Hakodadi in Japan. He is now separated from his starting-point by the whole width of Europe and Northern Asia, by an almost endless succession of plains and mountains, arid deserts or icy plateaux,