When I first wrote, thirty-five years ago, I attached great importance
to preoccupancy, and fancied that a body of indigenous plants already
fitted for every available station would prevent an invader, especially
from, a quite foreign province, from having a chance of making good his
settlement in a new country. But Darwin and Hooker contend that
continental species which have been improved by a keen and wide
competition are most frequently victorious over an insular or more
limited flora and fauna. Looking, therefore, upon Bali as an outpost of
the great Old World fauna, it ought to beat Lombok, which only
represents a less rich and extensive fauna, namely the Australian.
You may perhaps answer that Lombok is an outpost of an army that may
once have been as multitudinous as that of the old continent, but the
larger part of the host have been swamped in the Pacific. But they say
that European forms of animals and plants run wild in Australia and New
Zealand, whereas few of the latter can do the same in Europe. In my map
there is a small island called Nousabali; this ought to make the means
of migration of seeds and animals less difficult. I cannot find that you
say anywhere what is the depth of the sea between the Straits of Lombok,
but you mention that it exceeds 100 fathoms. I am quite willing to infer
that there is a connection between these soundings and the line of
demarcation between the two zoological provinces, but must we suppose
land communication for all birds of short flight? Must we unite South
America with the Galapagos Islands? Can you refer me to any papers by
yourself which might enlighten me and perhaps answer some of these
queries? I should have thought that the intercourse even of savage
tribes for tens of thousands of years between neighbouring islands would
have helped to convey in canoes many animals and plants from one
province to another so as to help to confound them.
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