“A saddle of venison would not be unwelcome,” La Cueille suggested, smacking his lips; “only one single morsel out of all this abundance is, I am sure, not asking too much.” “Have patience, my friend! All in good time. But to return to our subject. Do you not consider this a happy country where on land man has only to fear his fellow man, and in the water that other insatiable monster, the crocodile?” “But to what may be ascribed this absence of large animals in Borneo, while in other islands they are so abundantly met with?” “I once read that the series of islands which commence at the gulf of Pegu in Farther India was probably connected with New Guinea. In the course of time, by the agency of convulsions and earthquakes, the various straits were formed which now separate those islands and admit the waters of the Indian Ocean into the Chinese sea. If this theory can be believed it will account for the existence in those islands of so many of the animals which since the creation have been distributed over Hindostan and Farther India.” “That account is all very well for the islands mentioned; but for Borneo the reason remains still a mystery.” “Patience; I have not quite finished yet. At the time when this series of islands was still one continent Borneo did not exist. Its site was occupied by a large sea reaching from what is now Java to the Chinese coast, being bounded on the west by Sumatra, Malacca, and Cochin China, and on the east by Celebes and the Philippian Archipelago.” “Beautifully explained,” La Cueille observed; “it stands to reason that neither elephants, rhinoceroses nor tigers were swimming about in this sheet of water.” Johannes looked disdainfully at the Walloon, but not noticing the interruption, continued, “In the midst of this large basin, sundry small coral reefs raised their flat tops above the surface of the water. By gradual elevation of the base, the stone and clay layer upon which these coral reefs rested gradually appeared above the water. The shape obtained by this rise defined the future range of mountains running from north-east to south-west, with a few lateral spurs branching out from it. Borneo thus acquired its present form, which however it will lose again sooner or later.” “And why?” Schlickeisen asked.