g from Madagascar to Ceylon and Sumatra. Mr. Wallace
points out that if we confine ourselves to facts Lemuria is reduced to
Madagascar, which he makes a subdivision of the Ethiopian Region.) The
facts do not seem to me many and strong enough to justify so immense a
change of level. Moreover, Mauritius and the other islands appear to
me oceanic in character. But do not suppose that I place my judgment
on this subject on a level with yours. A wonderfully good paper was
published about a year ago on India, in the "Geological Journal," I
think by Blanford. (391/4. H.F. Blanford "On the Age and Correlations
of the Plant-bearing Series of India and the Former Existence of an
Indo-Oceanic Continent" ("Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." XXXI., 1875, page
519). The name Gondwana-Land was subsequently suggested by Professor
Suess for this Indo-Oceanic continent. Since the publication of
Blanford's paper, much literature has appeared dealing with the evidence
furnished by fossil plants, etc., in favour of the existence of a vast
southern continent.) Ramsay agreed with me that it was one of the
best published for a long time. The author shows that India has been a
continent with enormous fresh-water lakes, from the Permian period to
the present day. If I remember right, he believes in a former connection
with S. Africa.

I am sure that I read, some twenty to thirty years ago in a French
journal, an account of teeth of Mastodon found in Timor; but the
statement may have been an error. (391/5. In a letter to Falconer
(Letter 155), January 5th, 1863, Darwin refers to the supposed
occurrence of Mastodon as having been "smashed" by Falconer.)

With respect to what you say about the colonising of New Zealand,
I somewhere have an account of a frog frozen in the ice of a Swiss
glacier, and which revived when thawed. I may add that there is an
Indian toad which can resist salt-water and haunts the seaside. Nothing
ever astonished me more than the case of the Galaxias; but it does
not seem known whether it may not be a migratory fish like the salmon.
(391/6. The only genus of the Galaxidae, a family of fresh-water fishes
occurring in New Zealand, Tasmania, and Tierra del Fuego, ranging north
as far as Queensland and Chile (Wallace's "Geographical Distribution,"
II., page 448).)

LETTER 392. TO A.R. WALLACE. Down, June 25th, 1876.

I have been able to read rather more quickly of late, and have finished
your book. I have not much to say. Your car