It is now the opinion of naturalists that the Asiatic continent once included Java, Sumatra, and Borneo, probably also at an earlier period the Philippine Islands ; also that the Australian con tinent included the Timor group, the Celebes, the Moluccas, and the Papuan Island, and that the islands of the Asiatic division on the one Laud, and those of the Australian on the other, have been disrupted from their original continents by the violence of their respective volcanoes ; that the phenomena of volcanic action have been all of comparatively recent occurrence, and have not wholly obliterated the traces of the ancient distri bution of land and water.
These views have been arrived at from the fact that the natural productions of the Asiatic islands mid those of the Australian islands widely differ. The elephant and tapir of Sumatra and Borneo, the rhinoceros of Sumatra and Java, the wild cattle of Java and Borneo, belong to the same genera which inhabit part of Southern' Asia. Similarly with the birds and insects, every family and almost every genus found on any of the Asiatic islands occurs also on the Asiatic main land, and in a great many instances even the species are identical.
On the other hand, neither Australia nor the Australo-Malay islands have ape or monkey, cat or tiger, no wolves, no hymns, no bears, no elephants, horses, sheep, deer, or oxen. But Australia and the Australo-Malay islands have the opossum and the wombat ; and the kangaroo, long supposed to be peculiar to Australia, is found both in the Aru Islands and in the southern part of New Guinea.
The Asiatic division has woodpeckers, pheasants, barbets, and fruit thrushes, but no cockatoos or brush-tongued Tories. Australia and the Australo Malay islands have none of the former; but are the natural home of the latter.
Lastly, Mr. A. R. Wallace formed the opinion that all the peoples of the various islands can be grouped either with the Malay or the Papuan, two races differing in their physical, mental, and moral characters. In this view he carries out Mr. Earl's idea, and he is of opinion that a line can be drawn winch shall so divide the islands as to in dicate the one-half which truly belong to Asia, while the other with no less certainty is allied to Australia, and lie designates these respectively the ludo - Malayan and the Austro - Malayan divisions of the Archipelago.
The races occupying the islands, speakine. broadly, arc Malays or Papuans but Mr. A.
II. Keane has classed them as Malays, Molucca Malays, M al ayo-Papuans, and Papuans, asunder: 1. The Asiatic Malay Islands.
Group 1. The Indo-Malay Islands, viz. Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, with Malay inhabitants.
ii. The Islands.
Group 2. The Timor Islands, viz. Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, and Timor, with Malayo-Papuans.
Group 3. Celebes, Sulu Islands, and Bouton, with Malay inhabitants.
Group 4. The Moluccas, with Molucca-Malays in Bouru, Ceram, lintel:Ilan, Gilolo, Marty, Ternate, Tidore, Mahlon, Naioa, Amboyna, Banda, a oram, and Matabello.
Group 5. The Papuan Islands, New Guinea or Papua, Ara Islands, Ke Islands, Mysol, Salwatty, Weigtou, and others.
Of dark and brown types, Mr. Keane (p. 593) recognises four distinct stocks,—one of various shades of brown, and three of a distinctly dark type, physically different, speaking languages which belong to radically distinct linguistic types, while the varieties of the brown stock are one in speech and physique. The three dark races are the Austral of Australia, the Negrito, and the Papuan.
The Negrito occur in Levin and other of the Philippine Islands, the interior of Malacca, and the Andamans. Those in the Philippines are the Aiitas, Alms, or Itas of Spanish writers, a term in Tagala meaning black, the same as the Malay hetam. Those of the Andamans are the Mincopi, and those in the Malay Peninsula are the Semang and Bila. The Papuans, another of the black type, Papua, from Malay , papuwah, meaning curly, have also been called Melanesians. They are found in a pure state, or mixed with other races, in all the islands stretching from about the meridian of Flores eastwards to Fiji. They have sometimes been called Alfuro and Harafora, which some writers apply to heathen, i.e. the non Muhammadan and non - Christian tribes inter spersed in Bouro, Ceram, Flores, Gilolo, and simply means non-Muhammadan.
Malayo-Polynesian, Indo-Pacific, Micronesian, and Maori are names which have been applied to the three types of the brown races ; but Mr. Keane prefers that of Malay for the western branch, _Micronesian for the north-western group, and Maori or Polynesian for the large brown races of the Eastern Archipelagoes. He says that the Papuans are pure only in the interior and western parts of New Guinea, Aru, Waigiou, Salwatty, and other islands. On the N. coast of Australia, they are mixed with the Austral stock.