84 THE NEXT GENERATION 



He also saw that in the same valley, on separate trees, 

 there were often several varieties of the same species. In 

 one case he even found fifteen different species of the same 

 genus in five neighboring valleys ; and these valleys were so 

 small that, altogether, the ground they covered was less than 

 five miles long by two miles wide. 



All this perplexed him. And although he bought and 

 read Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle," it gave him no 

 help. 1 



As he continued to gather his shells, to study them, and 

 to label them, he constantly looked for points that were alike 

 and for points that were unlike. And in doing this he no- 

 ticed that species which lived closest together, on the same 

 trees or in the same valley, were very much alike. 



He then arranged his shells according to the exact spot 

 they came from. And now he saw that the nearer together 

 they were, the more alike ; the farther apart, the more unlike. 

 These various facts led him to ask himself two questions : 



1 . Why should so many species have been created so near 

 to each other ? 2 



2. Why should there be such an extraordinary number of 

 short steps between the different species ? 



While he asked these questions and puzzled his wits for 

 answers, John Gulick little thought that those treasured shells 

 of his were destined to travel back and forth to America and 

 round the world with him ; that he was to talk with Darwin 

 himself about them ; and that, in the end, his own answer 

 to his own questions was to help solve the great problem of 

 evolution. Yet all this came to pass. 



1 The " Origin of Species " was not written until years later. 



2 In those days men believed _that each species was created independ- 

 ently of all the others. 



