ON DISTRIBUTION. 23 



the Neilgherry hills, which are far away. It does not, 

 so far as I am aware, occur in the streams at the foot 

 of the Khasia hills ; at any rate, it is not common in 

 them, while of numerous kinds that are met with 

 below the ridge, one can find no traoe in the streams 

 above. 



Much patient and careful investigation would be 

 required before any definite conclusion could be arrived 

 at in cases like these. I merely mention the facts as 

 they occur to me, in order to show what interesting 

 inquiries present themselves in prosecuting the study 

 of Natural History, It need not be merely a pedantic 

 affair of long names and formulae, nor is there any 

 absolute necessity for making it a cause of jealousy and 

 bickering; on the contrary, it may be made a delightful 

 and perennial source of amusement and interest, while 

 out of it spring problems which elevate the study to the 

 rank of a science, and connect it in close relationship 

 with Geography, Meteorology, and Astronomy. 



Such problems as hinge on the geographical distri- 

 bution of species cannot be answered off-hand ; they 

 necessitate a great amount of patient observation ; our 

 knowledge as yet is very imperfect ; in fact, we may 

 say that what we now know is only sufficient to indi- 

 cate the lines on which further inquiries can be most 

 usefully made. There is plenty still to be done : of 

 hardly one single district or river of India can we say 

 that we know what fishes are, and (which is more im- 

 portant still) what kinds are not to be found there. 

 Of hardly any species do we know its exact range, or 



