426 



leopards, 203 bears, 281 wolves, aud 188 hysenas were destroyed in 

 the Central Provinces, at a cost to the Government of about 9,000 

 rupees (£900)."* 



Verily it would seem as if man were destined in the end to stand 

 alone upon the earth, or with only those animals about him needed 

 for his own purposes, all noxious animals having been got rid of, 

 except those which, by their small size and sequestered habits, 

 escape his vigilance. 



And this appears to be the view really taken by some Naturalists 

 at the present day. A writer in the Anthropological Review 

 remarks that — " the animal constantly loses ten-itory which man 

 gains. The day will arrive when there will be on the surface of the 

 earth only such animals as are useful to man."t More lately we 

 find Mr. Wallace, taking a yet broader view of things, and extend- 

 ing the same reasoning to the vegetable world, where it may equally 

 be applied, writing thus : — " We can anticipate the time when the 

 earth will produce only cultivated plants and domestic animals ; 

 when man's selection shall have supplanted ' natural selection ' ; 

 and when the ocean will be the only domain in which that power 

 can be exerted, which for countless cycles of ages ruled supreme 

 over all the earth." J 



Thus, in conclusion, have we seen biology, even mere local 

 biology, to be indeed a large subject. It regards life in all its 

 manifold forms and phases. It investigates the several changes 

 thi'ough which each animal passes, from life's first beginning to its 

 full maturity. It seeks to detenu ine the laws upon which depends 

 the stability or instability of the species itself, in connection with 

 the outward conditions under which it exists. It looks into all 

 time — past, present, and future. It turns from the consideration 

 of those animals which walk the earth now to those which once 

 roamed over it, the lords and possessors of the soil before man was, 

 but which, having fulfilled their mission, have long since disappeared ; 

 and it looks onward to the day when, perhaps, alj the i-aces of 

 animals now living shall, in like manner, have made way for 

 other forms, better suited to the age in which human progi-ess 

 shall have reached its highest point, and civilization have spread 

 over the face of the whole earth. 



• "Natvire," vol. v., p. 171. t Anthrop. Rev. (1869) vol. vii., p. 170. 



J " Natural Selection," p. 326. 



