LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



The "Wallace Line, proving the subsidence of the sea 

 and upheaval of land, has never been seriously dis- 

 puted, and is to many students the one great discovery 

 by which Wallace will be remembered jfc Wallace's 

 book on "The Geographical Distribution of Animals" 

 sets forth the interesting details of how he came to 

 discover the Line, in a most interesting manner. 

 It was in 1855, that "Wallace, alone in the wilds of 

 Malay became convinced of the scientific truth that 

 species were an evolution from a common source, and 

 he began making notes of his observations along this 

 particular line of thought. Some months afterward he 

 wrote out his belief in the form of an essay, but then 

 he had no definite intention of what he would do with 

 the paper beyond keeping it for future reference when 

 he returned to England. In the fall of 1857, however, 

 he decided to send it to Darwin to be read before some 

 scientific society, if Darwin considered it worthy. 

 And this paper was read on the evening of July 1st, 

 before the Linnaeus Society, with one by Darwin on 

 the same subject, written before "Wallace's paper ar- 

 rived, wherein the identical views are set forth. Dar- 

 win and Wallace expressed what many others had 

 guessed or but dimly perceived. 



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