226 The Irish Naturalist. August, 



pelled to take refuge ill the mountains or in remote regions, 

 where for a period the} T may gain sanctuary, and a respite from 

 their future inevitable extinction. Darwin compares these weak 

 and decadent species to the savage races of mankind which, 

 by stress of competition with superior races, have been driven 

 into the mountains and survive only in their fastnesses. 



Dr. Scharffin speaking of alpine organisms is almost equally 

 emphatic as to their relative weakness, describing them as 

 ancient forms which show their weakness not only by the 

 striking discontinuity of their distribution, but by their 

 inability to compete with the more dominant lowland species, 

 being able to withstand their rapid encroachments only in 

 mountainous or boggy regions. 



The alpine species were, however, undoubtedly at one time 

 dominant species, and would during their period of prosperity 

 become more or less widely diffused, and it is only by the 

 development of more improved forms that they have been 

 driven by stress of competition to retreat to the mountains, or 

 have become isolated in more or less remote spots on the low 

 ground^ being enabled to retain their footing in those places 

 by reason of the less severe competition the}' have to with- 

 stand ; for it must be remembered that animals or plants in- 

 habiting high latitudes or bleak and lofty altitudes, though 

 now adapted thereto after ages of residence therein, did not 

 resort to these inhospitable places from preference, but to 

 escape the keener struggle for existence that goes on 

 unceasingly in more favourable regions near the area of greatest 

 evolutionary activity, and this is strikingly exemplified in the 

 moist and warm climate of Ireland, where typically arctic and 

 other plants live and thrive. 



The greater abundance of species or individuals in certain 

 regions, is likewise no reliable indication that the spot they 

 now inhabit is their place of origin, unless the species or genus 

 be really dominant, but as Mr. Bather, one of our most en- 

 lightened zoologists, has pointed out, the present metropolis 

 of a species may be very far removed indeed from its original 

 home; and, further, temperature has little influence on 

 migration, but in the words of Darwin species are more 

 effectively limited by competition with other organisms than 

 by adaptation to climate, and this struggle is not limited to 



