282 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



of coniiectiug links, between the living and extinct in- 

 habitants of the world, and at each successive period 

 between the extinct and still older species, why is not 

 every geological formation charged with such links? 

 Why does not every collection of fossil remains afford 

 plain evidence of the gradation and mutation of the 

 forms of life? Although geological research has un- 

 doubtedly revealed the former existence of many links, 

 bringing numerous forms of life much closer together, 

 it does not yield the infinitely many fine gradations be- 

 tween past and present species required on the theory; 

 and this is the most obvious of the many objections 

 which may be urged against it. Why, again, do whole 

 groups of allied species appear, though this appearance is 

 often false, to have come in suddenly on the successive 

 geological stages? Although we now know that organic 

 beings appeared on this globe, at a period incalculably 

 remote, long before the lowest bed of the Cambrian 

 system was deposited, why do we not find beneath 

 this system great piles of strata stored with the re- 

 mains of the progenitors of the Cambrian fossils? For 

 on the theory, such strata must somewhere have been 

 deposited at these ancient and utterly unknown epochs 

 of the world's history. 



I can answer these questions and objections only on 

 the supposition that the geological record is far more 



/V^ r/ imperfect than most geologists believe. The number of 



'^-.' ^*^n|/''^^^ecimens in all our museums is absolutely asnothing 



\r compared with the countless generations of countless 



^^\ jJ^ species which have certainly existed. The parent-form of 



^-J^^ any two or more species would not be in all its char- 



^ acters directly intermediate between its modified offspring, 



