182 Transactions. — Zoology. 



that the larger forms of animals have universally preceded the 

 smaller in geological time (p. 101) is only a half-truth, if so 

 much, since all these large forms have been developed from 

 smaller ones, as shown in the case of the horse, as well as that 

 of the early marsupials of the Mesozoic period. Even more 

 open to objection is the statement (p. 102) that the Siberian 

 mammoth ' would clearly have required a growth of tropical 

 luxuriance to satisfy the wants of its capacious stomach ' ; 

 and that its being found by thousands imbedded in ice or 

 frozen soil implies ' a revolutionary change of climate.' A 

 sufficient answer to this theory is the fact that leaves and 

 cones of firs have been found in the stomach, showing that it 

 fed only a few degrees south of the places where it is now im- 

 bedded." 



Another very distinguished scientist, however (Sir Joseph 

 Hooker), takes a somewhat different view. He writes : " Yes- 

 terday I received yours of 10th May, and this morning your 

 * Illustrations of Darwinism.' Such is my avidity for anything 

 relating to the natural history of New Zealand that I read 

 your papers through at once and with very great pleasure. 

 They reminded one of ' White's Selborne,' * and interested 

 me exceedingly. I go along with you throughout the Dar- 

 winism discussion, especially with regard to so-called degraded 

 types being in reality advanced ones. The only criticism 

 which I would offer is that (p. 102) too much stress must not 

 be put on the correlation of gigantic animals with a luxuriant 

 and, especially, a tropical vegetation. I think that the con- 

 tents of the stomachs, or an examination of the teeth, at any 

 rate, of Siberian mammoths prove them to have fed on birch, 

 willow, and other shrubs like the existing dwarf plants of the 

 tundras ; and elephants swarmed at the Cape of Good Hope 

 itself when discovered, and for years afterwards. The Green- 

 land whale feeding on minute mollusca is an analogous case, 

 and there are a multitude of others. There is no reason to 



* To my mind Sir Joseph Hooker could not have paid a higher 

 compHment to the literary quality of these papers. Prom boyhood 

 " White's Natural History of Selborne " has been one of my favourite 

 books, as I suppose it has been with every student of ornithology. It is 

 thus referred to by the learned author of the article on Ornithology in 

 the " Encyclopsedia Britannica " : "It has passed through a far greater 

 number of editions than any other work on natural history in the whole 

 world, and has become emphatically an English classic, the graceful 

 Bimplicity of its style, the elevating tone of its spirit, and the sympathetic 

 chords it strikes recommending it to every lover of Nature, while the 

 strictly scientific reader can scarcely find an error in any statement it 

 contains, whether of matter of fact or opinion. It is almost certain 

 that more than half the zoologists of the British Islands for the past 

 seventy years or more have been infected with their love of the study by 

 Gilbert White, and it oan hardly be supposed that his influence will 

 cease." 



