1 62 Permanence and Evolution. 



that special intercourse must have existed once 

 between two countries ; an examination of their 

 fossils will show us that the resemblance be- 

 tween their forms is only that between the two 

 ends of a long chain, the (geographically) inter- 

 mediate links of which have become extinct. 



For instance, it has been supposed that there 

 was once a connection between South America 

 and the Indian Archipelago, and the existence 

 of races of Tapir in the two has been supposed 

 to be evidence of this ; but this argument 

 falls to the ground when we remember that 

 forms of the same type in the tertiary age 

 ranged over North America and Europe. Why 

 types should have become extinct in one place 

 and not in another sometimes we can tell, but 

 very often we cannot, any more than an evolu- 

 tionist can say why a particular variation is 

 developed in one place rather than in another. 

 The same applies to the argument for connec- 

 tion between South America and South Africa 



