PT. rr. Mr. Darwin and Mr. Buckle. 85 



says may have taken millions of years to accomplish, 

 .and 120 generations is all that we can possibly look 

 back upon. How does Mr. Darwin prove the con- 

 nection between all these periods? upon the sole 

 evidence of fossil remains which come down to us, 

 by his own showing, in a broken and disjointed 

 condition. When we confine our observations to 

 the existing Geological period, where can we trace 

 the action of these agents ? Mr. Darwin dwells 

 upon the variation effected by breeders in domestic 

 animals ; all those varieties (which exist after all to 

 a very small extent) are only found among animals 

 of the same kind, and which breed and multiply 

 with most perfect facility. Wherever a cross takes 

 place between animals of a different although very 

 similar species, as in the case of the horse and the 

 ass, it is always a result of the contrivances of man, 

 and never occurs in wild animals. Many varieties 

 of the cat kind appear more nearly allied to each 

 other than is the horse to the ass, but sexual inter- 

 course never takes place between them. A tiger 

 and a lioness differ very little perhaps in the case 

 of the lion he might alarm the tigress by his magni- 

 ficent mane but the lioness, who has no such 

 distinguished appendage, does not differ very much 



