OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 131 



hag B, as if it had borne against the standing of the true pla- 

 coid A. The Patagonians are the tallest and bulkiest men 

 in the world, whereas their neighbours the Fuegians are a 

 slim and diminutive race. And if, in some controversy raised 

 regarding the real size of the more gigantic tribe, they were 

 to be described as the "very tallest types of their class, any 

 statement in reply, to the effect that some trustworthy voyagor 

 had examined certain races of the extreme south of America, 

 and had found that they were both short and thin, would be 

 neither relevant in its facts nor legitimate in its bearing. But 

 if the controversialist who thus strove to strengthen his case 

 by the voyager's authority was at the same time fully aware 

 that the voyager had seen not only the diminutive Fuegians, 

 but also the gigantic Patagonians, and that he had described 

 these last as very gigantic indeed, the introduction of the 

 statement regarding the smaller race, when he wholly sank 

 the statement regarding the larger, would be not merely very 

 irrelevant in the circumstances, but also very unfair. Such, 

 however, is the style of statement to which the author of the 

 "Vestiges" has (I trust inadvertently) resorted in this con- 

 troversy. 



It is not uninstructive to mark how slowly and gradually 

 the naturalists have been groping their way to a right classi- 

 fication in the ichthyic department of their science, and how 

 it has been that identical perception of resemblance, having 

 cartilage for its general idea, to which the author of the 

 "Vestiges" attaches so much importance, has served main- 

 ly to retard their progress. Not a few of the more distin- 

 guished among their number deemed it too important a 

 distinction to be regarded as merely secondary ; and so long 

 as it was retained as a primary characteristic, the fishes failed 

 to range themselves in the natural order ; — dissimilar tribes 

 were brought into close neighbourhood, ^hile tribes nearly 

 allied were widely separated. It failed, as has been shown^ 



