he South Sea at one time
formed a large Pacific Continent, and the numerous little islands
which now lie scattered in it were simply the highest peaks of the
mountains covering that continent. The Indian Ocean formed a continent
which extended from the Sunda Islands along the southern coast of Asia
to the east coast of Africa. This large continent of former times
Sclater, an Englishman, has called _Lemuria_, from the monkey-like
animals which inhabited it, and it is at the same time of great
importance from being the probable cradle of the human race, which in
all likelihood here first developed out of anthropoid apes.[2] The
important proof which Alfred Wallace has furnished, by the help of
chorological facts, that the present Malayan Archipelago consists in
reality of two completely different divisions, is particularly
interesting. The western division, the Indo-Malayan Archipelago,
comprising the large islands of Borneo, Java and Sumatra, was
formerly connected by Malacca with the Asiatic continent, and probably
also with the Lemurian continent just mentioned. The eastern division
on the other hand, the Austro-Malayan Archipelago, comprising Celebes,
the Moluccas, New Guinea, Solomon's Islands, etc., was formerly
directly connected with Australia. Both divisions were formerly two
continents separated by a strait, but they have now for the most part
sunk below the level of the sea. Wallace, solely on the ground of his
accurate chorological observations, has been able in the most accurate
manner to determine the position of this former strait, the south end
of which passes between Balij and Lombok.

"Thus, ever since liquid water existed on the earth, the boundaries of
water and land have eternally changed, and we may assert that the
outlines of continents and islands have never remained for an hour,
nay, even for a minute, exactly the same. For the waves eternally and
perpetually break on the edge of the coast, and whatever the land in
these places loses in extent, it gains in other places by the
accumulation of mud, which condenses into solid stone and again rises
above the level of the sea as new land. Nothing can be more erroneous
than the idea of a firm and unchangeable outline of our continents,
such as is impressed upon us in early youth by defective lessons on
geography, which are devoid of a geological basis."[3]

The name Lemuria, as above stated, was originally adopted by Mr.
Sclater in recognition of the