148 "SPECIAL CREATION' 1 



the hypothesis with which he is dealing would 

 explain the appearances which he was seeking to 

 explain, that does not prove that it is the true 

 explanation, since the real answer to the riddle 

 may be one then unknown to him. There are, 

 however, one or two points it may be useful to 

 consider before we leave the question. 



That evolution may occur within a class seems 

 to be quite certain. The case of the Porto 

 Santo rabbits, one of many cited by Darwin or 

 brought to knowledge since his time, will make 

 clear what is meant. Porto Santo is a small 

 island, not far from Madeira, on which a 

 Portuguese navigator, named Zarco, let loose, 

 somewhere about the year 1420, a doe and a 

 recently born litter of rabbits, which we may 

 feel quite sure belonged to one of those domestic 

 breeds which have all been derived from the 

 wild rabbit of Europe known to zoologists as 

 Lepus Cuniculus. The island was a favourable 

 spot for the rabbits, for there do not appear to 

 have been any carnivorous beasts or birds to harry 

 them, nor were there other land mammals com- 

 peting with them for food ; and, as a result, we 

 are told that they had so far increased and multi- 

 plied in forty years as to be described as " in- 

 numerable." In four and a half centuries these 

 rabbits had become so different from anyEuropean 

 rabbits that Haeckel described them as a species 

 apart, and named it Lepus Huxlei. This rabbit 

 is much smaller than the European form, being 

 described as more like a large rat than a rabbit. 

 Its colour is very different from its European 



