By the polar bears and a group of Arctic birds an indication of this northernmost of faunas is afforded. The various foxes of the Arctic shores, the dogs of the Esquimaux, the walrus with its human head, whalebone and finner whales, were their bulk admissible, would fill up the group with more completeness. The reindeer serves to indicate the boundary of the province, and stands as a representative of the verge of these realms of ice and snow.

AUSTRALIA AND INDIAN ISLANDS.

The vegetation and much of the animal population of the Indian islands, both on the land and in the sea, constitute a passage between the floras and faunas of Asia, and those so exceedingly peculiar, when regarded apart, of Australia. The group of islands connected with New Guinea—mountainous, forest-clothed, hot and moist in their climate—especially exhibit this passage. Spice-trees and numerous forms of palms mark differences; the presence of casuarinæ, gum-trees, and melaleucas, resemblances. A few species of Australian types are highly suggestive of the same relation.

The ourang, the Malay tapir, and bears, and the flying-squirrels, with a rich array of birds, illustrate the zoology of the Indian Archipelago; while that of Australia and Tasmania are indicated by the kangaroos, duck-billed platypus, Tasmanian wolf, and echidnas, with many of the singular and strangely peculiar birds of this most remarkable zoological province, where we seem to have the lowest conditions of the vertebrate type, assembled as if to indicate a rudimentary stage in the world’s history. The vegetation—typified here by Banksias and other proteaceous shrubs, epacridiæ, gum-trees, and many more forms as striking and peculiar—indicates a corner of the earth set apart.

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

GEOLOGY AND INHABITANTS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
THE EXTINCT ANIMALS RESTORED BY B. WATERHOUSE HAWKINS. F.G.S. F.L.S.

PUBLISHED FOR THE CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY, BY BRADBURY & EVANS. 11, BOUVERIE ST.

[Large plan.]