Buller. — Illustrations of Darwinism. 103 



todon australis, a gigantic marsupial considerably exceeding 

 the rhinoceros in size, the remains of a giant wombat as large 

 as a half - grown bullock, several kinds of colossal birds 

 equalling in stature the Moa of New Zealand, and several 

 species of gigantic kangaroos ! The writer's reflection is as 

 follows : " What a different picture of the past history of this 

 country is brought to light by these discoveries ! On the sides 

 of these mountains lying between Lake Frome and Lake 

 Torrens must have grown huge trees, and all around there 

 must have been a dense tropical growth, exceeding in 

 luxuriance the forests of the eastern slopes of the Andes in 

 South America ! " 



Commenting on this remarkable sequence of animal life on 

 the earth at different periods of its history in the same 

 geographical areas, Sir John Lubbock observes, " Our pre- 

 historic ancestors hunted the mammoth, the woolly-haired 

 rhinoceros, and the Irish elk ; the ancient Britons had the 

 wild ox, the deer, and the wolf. We have still the pheasant, 

 the partridge, the fox, and the hare ; but even these are 

 becoming scarcer, and must be preserved first in order that 

 they may be killed afterwards." 



I fear I have already trespassed too long on your kind 

 indulgence, but the subject is a very seductive one, and, in 

 treating of it, however briefly, it is difficult to keep within the 

 ordinary limits of an address. But just one word in con- 

 clusion. As you will have gathered from the views I have 

 had the privilege of placing before you this evening, I am a 

 thorough disciple of Darwinism in the higher sense of that 

 term. I do not think it is possible to explain on any other 

 hypothesis the wonderful variety and complexity of living 

 forms that inhabit this beautiful world of ours. We must, as 

 it seems to me, acknowledge with the author of " The Origin 

 of Species," in one of his later works, that " man, with all his 

 noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most de- 

 based, with benevolence which extends not only to other men 

 but to the humblest living creature, with his godlike intellect 

 which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of 

 the solar system — with all these exalted powers, man still 

 bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly 

 origin." I do not accept, however, as many do, the purely 

 materialistic theory, because I am a believer in the truths of 

 revelation and in the spiritual destiny of man. As that of a 

 humble worker in the field of science, earnestly seeking the 

 truth, this is, so to speak, my confession of faith as a 

 naturalist. To adopt Mr. Wallace's admirable language on 

 this point, I am "thus relieved from the crushing mental 

 burden imposed upon those w T ho — maintaining that we, in 

 common with the rest of nature, are but products of the blind 



