Page:A sketch of the physical structure of Australia.djvu/107

 same species throughout its extent, which did not occur on the western, and vice versâ. Each group of islands when raised so as to be all connected by dry land, would be prepared to act the part of a specific, or even perhaps a generic centre, and its inhabitants would descend on the newly acquired plains, to reconquer and reclaim their old territories, or to occupy the new. Some of the islands, however, having remained as islands, might preserve their peculiarities, which would account, in the instance of Tasmania, for its peculiar possession of those extraordinary animals, the Dasyurus ursinus and Thylacinus cynocephalus, (the "devil" and the "tiger" of the colonists). Others might still be separated by impassable deserts from the rest, as in the instance of Western Australia, where the peculiarities of the fauna and flora are more marked than in the other colonies.

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