xlii 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



departure from their normal standards, consequent upon the altera- 

 tion of surrounding circumstances, must ere long have become (more 

 or less) apparent in most of the creatures which had been thus indi- 

 rectly operated upon. And if this be granted, I think we have all 

 that we require to account for many of the trifling (though per- 

 manent) deviations from central types which are seldom so conspi- 

 cuous as on the broken-up portions of a once continuous land. 



It will be seen that the above remarks have a direct bearing on 

 the conclusion at which I arrived (vide p. xvi.), when discussing 

 the Coleopterous statistics of these Atlantic Groups namely, that 

 whilst the genera are, on the whole, pretty much the same in the 

 Madeiras, Salvages, and Canaries, the actual species (using that term, 

 however, as expressing only a mere assortment of individuals more 

 or less abruptly differing from those of every other assemblage 

 and not in its absolute, theoretical, and practically more difficult 

 sense) which permeate the entire archipelago are marvellously few in 

 number, compared with the extent of the respective faunas. This 

 indeed would seem almost to follow from the premises which I have 

 assumed ; for we should naturally be prepared to expect that the 

 individuals (for instance) which might chance to become isolated on 

 a small and barren rock would probably initiate a race which in a 

 very few generations* would have acquired some trifling peculiarity, 

 serving thenceforth to distinguish its exponents from those of another 

 conclave (specifically identical with* them) which had remained un- 

 molested amidst the more favourable conditions of a comparatively 

 elevated central tract. I believe that it is mainly upon some such 

 principle as this that we can hope to understand that most puzzling 



* I say " in a very few generations," because I cannot but think that a vast 

 deal too much is made of what is called " the argument from time." Where an 

 organism has been ascertained positively to be advancing steadily onwards in 

 one undeviating direction (and it would indeed be a marvellous fact), I then 

 admit that time (as an element) is all-important. But this self-acquired, self- 

 directed progress is in most instances quite imaginary, and is merely assumed 

 for the sake of upholding a theory which could have no existence without its aid. 

 To say that alternations and changes are constantly going on in organic nature 

 is but asserting a truism, for perfect quiescence seems to be impossible ; but that 

 is a very different thing from a continued and uniform advancement in a given 

 course. My own belief is that in the feral world all such systematic progression 

 is the exception, rather than the rule, and is seldom prolonged (if ever) beyond 

 a few generations, and that its existence, as a universal fact, is a myth. I hope 

 to state shortly that, at any rate in these Atlantic islands, if there is one thing 

 which is more striking than another, and in proof of which we have some real 

 evidence to adduce, it is the apparent unchangeability of the great mass of the 

 endemic forms. And if this be the case, of what use (when there is nothing to 

 "add up") is the argument from time? Nothing, multiplied by ten or ten- 

 million, is the same thing. In both instances it equals nothing, and can never 

 be made to represent a positive quantity. 



