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 in the course of our survey meetwith cases illustrative of both these processes. The best examples of recent continental islands areGreat Britain and Ireland, Japan, Formosa, and the largerMalay Islands, especially Borneo, Java, and Celebes; andas each of these presents special features of interest, wewill give a short outline of their zoology and past historyin relation to that of the continents from which they haverecently been separated, commencing with our own islands,to which the present chapter will be devoted. Recent Physical Changes in the British Isles,—GreatBritain is perhaps the most typical example of a large andrecent continental island now to be found upon the globe.It is joined to the Continent by a shallow bank whichextends from Denmark to the Bay of Biscay, the 100fathom line from these extreme points receding from the CHAP. XVI THE BRITISH ISLES 333 coasts so as to include the whole of the British Isles andabout fifty miles beyond them to the westward. (See Map.)
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MAP SHOWING THE SHALLOW BANK CONNECTING THE BRITISH ISLES WITH THE CONTINENT. The light tint indicates a depth of less than 100 fathoms. The figures show the deptli in fatlioms. The narrow channel between Norway and Denmark is 2,5S0 feet deep. Beyond this line the sea deepens rapidly to the 500 and1,000 fathom lines, the distance between 100 and 1,000 334 ISLAND LIFE part ii fathoms being from twenty to fifty miles, except wherethere is a great outward curve to include the PorcupineBank 170 miles west of Galway, and to the north-west ofCaithness where a narrow ridge less than 500 fathomsbelow the surface joins the extensive bank under 300fathoms, on which are situated the Faroe Islands andIceland, and which stretches across to Greenland. In theNorth Channel between Ireland and Scotland, and in theMinch between the outer Hebrides and Skye, are a seriesof hollows in the sea-bottom from 100 to 150 fathomsdeep. These correspond exactly to the points between theopposing highlands where the

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