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parts of the world, and wherever this is the case speedy and 

 extensive changes are effected in the organic products of the 

 spot. The forests are destroyed, the climate changed to a 

 greater or less extent, and the delicately poised balance of 

 life that may have existed with but slight oscillations for 

 thousands of years is interfered with, and as the result pro- 

 found though perhaps unnoticed changes take place in the 

 Natural History, the effect invariably being that species that 

 can but little tolerate changes become extinct. There is a 

 chapter in Zoology that will always afford scope for the 

 exercise of the imagination — the forms of animal life that 

 have been extinguished by man without his having gained 

 even a knowledge of their existence ; they must already be 

 numerous, probably very numerous ; soon their number will 

 be enormous, for the signs of the times are that the process 

 of diffusion of the European races will continue, and, if that 

 is the case, a large portion of the existing fauna and flora of 

 the earth is doomed to extinction, and in all probability at no 

 very distant date. 



In the last 120 years we have acquired insects for our 

 collections at the rate of about 2000 new species a year, and 

 have thus obtained the most easily acquired one-tenth of the 

 existing total; if, as these data indicate, it is to take us much 

 more than 1000 years to complete our collections, we may 

 feel only too sure that the task will never be accomplished, for 

 a very large part of the more interesting and important forms 

 will have been swept out of existence. In a letter I received 

 from Mr. Pascoe a few weeks ago he mentioned that he was 

 present at the spot now called Adelaide, when it was taken 

 possession of by the British in the name of King William IV. 

 Think of Adelaide as it is now, and of the geometrical ratio 

 in which the population increases in Australia, and then 

 reflect on what proportion of the present fauna of Australia 

 will have ceased to exist in another century or two. 



In the interest of future generations, as well as for our 

 own satisfaction, we ought to work energetically at this 

 enormous task, and it will soon be absolutely necessary to 

 inquire what is the best way in which this can be done. 



So far as I am aware there exists no society or other 

 organisation for the purpose of discovering and preserving 



