propounded this view. His opinion is, that the Himalayas then
existed only as a chain of islands, and did not till a much later age
become elevated into mountain ranges,--a change which took place during
the same revolution that raised the great plains of Siberia and Tartary
and many parts of north-western Europe. At the same time the great
continent whose position between the tropics has been alluded to, and
whose previous existence is still indicated by the Coral islands, the
Laccadives, the Maldives, and the Chagos group, underwent simultaneous
depression by a counteracting movement.[1]

[Footnote 1: _The Ancient World_, by D.T. ANSTED, M.A., &c., pp.
322-324.]

But divested of oriental mystery and geologic conjecture, and brought to
the test of "geographical distribution," this once prodigious continent
would appear to have connected the distant Islands of Ceylon and Sumatra
and possibly to have united both to the Malay peninsula, from which the
latter is now severed by the Straits of Malacca. The proofs of physical
affinity between these scattered localities are exceedingly curious.

A striking dissimilarity presents itself between some of the Mammalia of
Ceylon and those of the continent of India. In its general outline and
feature, this branch of the island fauna, no doubt, exhibits a general
resemblance to that of the mainland, although many of the larger animals
of the latter are unknown in Ceylon: but, on the other hand, some
species discovered there are peculiar to the island. A deer[1] as large
as the Axis, but differing from it in the number and arrangement of its
spots, has been described by Dr. Kelaart, to whose vigilance the natural
history of Ceylon is indebted, amongst others, for the identification of
two new species of monkeys[2], a number of curious shrews[3], and an
orange-coloured ichneumon[4], before unknown. There are also two
squirrels[5] that have not as yet been discovered elsewhere, (one of
them belonging to those equipped with a parachute[6],) as well as some
local varieties of the palm squirrel (Sciurus penicillatus, _Leach_).[7]

[Footnote 1: Cervus orizus, KELAART, _Prod. F. Zeyl.,_ p. 83.]

[Footnote 2: Presbytes ursinus, _Blyth_, and P. Thersites, _Elliot_.]

[Footnote 3: Sorex montanus, S. ferrugineus, and Feroculus macropus.]

[Footnote 4: Herpestes fulvescens, KELAART, _Prod. Faun. Zeylan_.. App.
p. 42.]

[Footnote 5: Sciurus Tennentii, _Layard_.]

[Footnote 6: Sciuropteru