Identifier: islandlifeorphen001wall (find matches)
Title: Island life : or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Wallace, Alfred Russel, 1823-1913
Subjects: Biogeography Islands Glacial epoch
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: California Academy of Sciences
Digitizing Sponsor: California Academy of Sciences Library

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l Distonh^iiion of Animals, it seems advisable toreview the facts on the present occasion, more especiallyas the systematic investigation of the characteristics ofcontinental islands w^e have now made will place us in abetter position for determining its true zoo-geographicalrelations. Physical Features of Celebes.—This large and still com-paratively unexplored island is interesting to the geo-grapher on account of its remarkable outline, but muchmore so to the zoologist for its curious assemblage ofanimal forms. The geological structure of Celebes isvery little known. The extremity of the northern pen-insula is volcanic; w^hile in the southern peninsula thereare crystalline limestones of secondary age, in some placesoverlying basalt. Gold is found in the northern peninsulaand in the central mass, as well as iron, tin, and copper insmall quantities. Granite and gneiss occur in all the 452 ISLAND LIFE chief mountain ranges, which, no doubt, consist largely ofancient stratified rocks.
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MAP OF CELEBES AND THE SURROUNDING ISLANDS. The depth of sea is shown by three tints: the lightest indicating less than 100fathoms, the medium tint less than 1,000 fathoms, and the dark tint more than1,000 fathoms. The figures show depths in fathoms. It is not yet known whether Celebes is completelyseparated from the surrounding islands by a deep sea, but CHAP. XX CELEBES 453 the facts at our command render it probable that it is so.The northern and eastern portions of the Celebes Sea havebeen ascertained to be from 2,000 to 2,600 fathoms deep,and such depths may extend over a considerable portion ofit, or even be much exceeded in the centre. In theMolucca passage a single sounding on the Gilolo side gave1,200 fathoms, and a large part of the Molucca and BandaSeas probably exceed 2,000 fathoms. The southern portionof the Straits of Macassar is full of coral reefs, and ashallow sea of less than 100 fathoms extends from Borneoto within about forty miles of the western promontory ofCeleb

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