18591863] FRESH- WATER FORMS 143 



general rise in organisation. But there is a directly opposite Letter 95 

 objection to yours which is very difficult to answer viz. 

 how at the first start of life, when there were only the 

 simplest organisms, how did any complication of organisation 

 profit them ? I can only answer that we have not facts 

 enough to guide any speculation on the subject. 



With respect to Lepidosiren, Ganoid fishes, perhaps 

 Ornithorhynchus^ I suspect, as stated in the Origin^ that 

 they have been preserved, from inhabiting fresh-water and 

 isolated parts of the world, in which there has been less 

 competition and less rapid progress in Natural Selection, 

 owing to the fewness of individuals which can inhabit small 

 areas ; and where there are few individuals variation at most 

 must be slower. There are several allusions to this notion in 

 the Origin, as under Amblyopsis, the blind cave-fish, 2 and 

 under Heer 3 about Madeira plants resembling the fossil and 

 extinct plants of Europe. 



To James Lamont. 4 Letter 96 



Down, March 5th [1860?]. 



I am much obliged for your long and interesting letter. 

 You have indeed good right to speak confidently about the 

 habits of wild birds and animals ; for 1 should think no one 

 beside yourself has ever sported in Spitzbergen and Southern 

 Africa. It is very curious and interesting that you should 

 have arrived at the conclusion that so-called " Natural Selec- 

 tion " had been efficient in giving their peculiar colours to our 

 grouse. I shall probably use your authority on the similar 

 habits of our grouse and the Norwegian species. 



I am particularly obliged for your very curious fact of the 

 effect produced by the introduction of the lowland grouse on 

 the wildness of the grouse in your neighbourhood. It is a 

 very striking instance of what crossing will do in affecting the 

 character of a breed. Have you ever seen it stated in any 



1 Origin of Species (Ed. VI.), p. 83. 



2 Origin, p. 112. 



3 Origin, p. 83. 



4 James Lamont, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., author of Seasons 'with the Sea- 

 horses, etc.; Yachting in the Arctic Seas, or Notes of Five Voyages of Sport 

 a?id Discovery in the Neighbourhood of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, 

 London, 1876 ; and geological papers on Spitzbergen. 



