I873-] LETTER TO A. MURRAY. 211 



The world has arisen in some way or other. How it originated 

 is the great question, and Darwin's theory, like all other attempts 

 to explain the origin of life, is thus far merely conjectural. I believe 

 he has not even made the best conjecture possible in the present 

 state of our knowledge. . - . 



I would add as a resumt : Man has not yet been able 

 to create, or " evolve," if the word is more acceptable to 

 the followers of Darwin's theory, a single true species 

 of animal or plant ; but per contra he has certainly the 

 power to destroy them, several species of animals hav- 

 ing been exterminated during the last two centuries by 

 men not one of whom knew anything about the origin 

 of species, according to Darwin, Lamarck, Haeckel, or 

 Huxley. Destruction is certainly easier than evolution. 



The last, but not the least, natural history surprise 

 enjoyed by Agassiz came from Newfoundland. Fish- 

 ermen in Conception Bay, in a battle against a gigantic 

 squid, succeeded in cutting off and securing an arm of 

 the beast nineteen feet long. The body of the animal 

 was sixty feet long, and his diameter not less than five 

 feet. The state geologist of Newfoundland, Mr. A. 

 Murray, wrote me a long letter 1 on this remarkable 

 monster, which I hastened to communicate to Agassiz. 

 The following is Agassiz's letter to Mr. Murray on the 



subject : - 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS., Nov. 25, 1873. 



My dear Sir, My friend Marcou has communicated to me your 

 most interesting letter ; and I am delighted at last to have so direct 

 information concerning the gigantic cephalopods of the Atlantic, of 

 which so much has been said since the clays of Pontoppidan in his 



1 This letter from Mr. Murray was published in "The American 

 Naturalist," Vol. VIII., pp. 120-123. February, 1874. Salem. 



