284 ABSENCE OF INTERMEDIATE VARIETIES Chap. IX. 



the genus itself in most cases will stand more distinct from 

 ntlicr allied genera. The camel and the pig, or the horse and 

 the tapir, are now obviously very distinct forms ; but if we add 

 the several fossil quadrupeds which have already been discov- 

 ered to the families including the camel and pig, these forma 

 become joined by links not extremely wide apart. The chain 

 of linking forms does not, hovrever, in these cases, or in any 

 case, run straight from the one living form to the other, but 

 takes a circuitous sweep through the forms which lived during 

 long-past ages. What geological research has not revealed, 

 is the former existence of infinitely numerous gradations, as 

 fine as existing varieties, connecting nearly all our existing 

 species w'itli extinct species. But this ought not to be ex- 

 pected ; yet this has been repeatedly advanced as a most 

 serious objection against my views. 



It may be worth while to sum up the foregoing remarks on 

 the causes of the imperfection of the geological record under 

 an imaginary illustration. The Malay Archipelago is about 

 the size of liluvopc from the North Cape to the Mediterranean, 

 and fi'om Britain to Russia ; and therefore equals all the geo- 

 logical formations which have been examined with any accu- 

 racy, excepting those of the United States of America. I fully 

 agree with Mr. Godwin-x^usten, that the present condition of 

 the Malay Archipelago, with its numerous large islands sep- 

 arated by wide and shallow seas, probably represents the for- 

 mer state of Europe, while most of our formations were accu- 

 mulating. The Malay Archipelago is one of the richest re- 

 gions of the "whole world in organic beings ; yet, if all the 

 species were to be collected which have ever lived there, how 

 imperfectly would they represent the natural history of the 

 world ! 



But Ave have every reason to believe that the terrestrial 

 productions of the archipelago would be preserved in an ex- 

 tremely imperfect manner in the formations which we suppose 

 to be there accumulating. Not many of the strictly littoral 

 animals, or of those Avhich lived on naked submarine rocks, 

 would be embedded ; and those embedded in gravel or sand 

 would not endure to a distant epoch. Wherever sediment did 

 not accumulate on the bed of the sea, or where it did not accu- 

 mulate at a sufficient rate to protect organic bodies from decay, 

 no remains could be preserved. 



Formations rich in fossils of many kinds, and of thick- 

 ness sufficient to last to an age as distant in futurity as 



