The study of the geographical distribution of animals has brought forth a great mass of facts which, considered by themselves, seem chaotic and meaningless, but which, in the light of Evolution, are full of significance. Observe, for example, the distribution of the Marsupials or pouch-bearing animals, shown on the accompanying map (Fig. 12). Australia is full of them, while they are relatively meagrely represented in a few other parts of the world. At the same time the greater and higher group of mammals was represented in Australia, at the time of its discovery, only by the bushman and his dog and a few species of mice. It is not as if the Australian environment were specially well adapted for marsupials, or specially ill-adapted for higher mammals; for the sheep has proved itself splendidly adapted for the conditions, and the rabbit most inconveniently so. Why, then, this curious state of affairs? It is an undoubted fact that the marsupials are both lower in their position in the animal kingdom, and older, than the main group to which all our European mammals belong. Now it is believed that Australia was once connected by land with the Asiatic Continent, and that it was finally separated from it before the higher mammals were in existence. The great step of further progress occurred elsewhere than in Australia, and the mammals of the latter continent were left in their obsolete condition, preserved through lack of competition of that higher type which elsewhere became dominant. [Illustration: FIG. 13.--Distribution of Lemurs. Madagascar 12 Genera. 36 Species. Africa, India, Malay 5 Genera. 12 Species.] Madagascar offers a similar case. It abounds with forest vegetation and seems to offer a highly suitable environment for the monkey tribe. Yet there are no apes on the island. Their place is occupied by the Lemur tribe, which, there is every reason to believe, is the older group of the two, and that from which the apes have sprung. It is supposed, then, that Madagascar was separated from Africa before the ape had evolved. The lemurs thenceforward were free from the competition of their more highly developed relatives, and have branched out into a great variety of types, while still remaining on a relatively low plane of intelligence and specialisation. The distribution of the Lemurs is shown in Fig. 13.