Page:The origin of continents and oceans - Wegener, tr. Skerl - 1924.djvu/111

Rh from Japan and China. Moreover, the American coast at that time was much farther removed from Hawai than it is now.

The biological relations between the Deccan and Madagascar, explained by a sunken “Lemuria,” are so well known that we shall here be content with a reference to Fig. 15, and to the work of Arldt. In this case also, the superiority of the displacement theory is again shown, since the two parts possess in their present positions a considerable difference of latitude, and have a similar climate and shelter similar forms of life only because the equator lies between them. In view of this great distance, the period of the Glossopteris flora presents us with a climatic puzzle, which, however, is solved by the displacement theory. Moreover, the whole of the Glossopteris deposits in the southern continents may be considered, not only, as already mentioned, as proof of a land connection at that period, but also as a proof of the superiority of the displacement theory as compared with that of submerged continents, for it is impossible to assume from their present position that they could all have had the same climate at every period of the earth’s history. This will, however, be still further considered in the next chapter.

We will only now discuss here the Australian animal kingdom, which appears to me to be of quite considerable importance to the question of displacement. Wallace long ago detected a clear division into three different ancient stocks, and this result has not essentially been altered by the more recent investigations, such as those of Hedley. The oldest element, which occurs mainly in the south-west of Australia, shows affinities especially with India and Ceylon, as well as with Madagascar and South Africa. Here the