But for
the loss of his collections and notes we should have had from
Wallace's pen a Physical History of the Amazon. This loss was,
however, amply made up by his very original contributions to the
geography of the Malay Archipelago. "The Zoological Geography of
the Malay Archipelago" and "The Physical Geography of the Malay
Archipelago" (written on Eastern soil, with the texts of his
discourses around him) were the forerunners of his monumental
"Geographical Distribution of Animals," elaborated in England
after his return. "To the publication of the 'Geographical
Distribution of Animals' we owe the first scientific study of the
distribution of organic life on the globe, which has broadened
ever since, and continues to interest students daily; his
brilliant work in Natural History and Geography ... is universally
honoured," are the opinions of Dr. Scott speaking as President of
the Linnean Society of London.
One of Wallace's most important contributions to the physical
geography of the Malay region was his discovery of the physical
differences between the western and the eastern portions of the
Archipelago; i.e. that the islands lying to the east of a line
running north from the middle of the Straits of Bali and outside
Celebes were fragments of an ancient and larger Australian
continent, while those to the western side were fragments of an
Asiatic continent.
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