CM AI'TKk X. 

 ON SELECTION. 



Darwin, in his introduction to " Natural Selection.'' says : " From 

 a r-mote period, in all parts 01 the world, man has subjected many 

 animals and plants to domestication or culture. Man has no power of 

 altering the absolute conditions of life ; he cannot change the climate 

 of -any country ; he adds no new element to the soil ; but he can re- 

 move an animal or plant from one climate or soil to another, and give 

 it lood on which it did not subsist in its natural state. 



;< It is an error to speak of m,an ' tampering with Nature' and causing 

 variability. If organic beings had not possessed an inherent tendency 

 to vary, man could have done nothing. He unintentionally exposes 

 his animals and plants to various conditions o-t life, and variability 

 supervenes, which he cannot even prevent or check. Man, therefore, 

 may be said to have been trying an experiment on a gigantic scale, 

 on the lines which Nature during the long lapse of time has incessantly 

 fried. Hence it follows that the principles of domestication are im- 

 portantjor us ; and the main result is that organic beings thus treated 

 have varied largely, and the variations have been inherited. This has 

 apparently been one chief cause of the beliei long held by some few 

 naturalists that species in a state of nature undergo change. Hence, 

 although man does not cause variability and cannot even prevent it, 

 he can select, preserve, and accumulate the- variations given to him 

 by the hand of Nature in any way which he chooses ; and thus he 

 can certainly produce a great result. It can also be clearly shown 

 that man, without any intention or thought of improving the breed, 

 by preserving in each successive generation the individuals which he 

 prizes most, and by destroying the worthless individuals, slowly, 

 though surely, induces great changes. We can 'further understand 

 how it is that domesticated races of animals and cultivated races of 

 plants often exhibit an abnormal character, as compared with natural 

 species ; for they have been modified not for their own benefit, but 

 for that of man." For which they were created. 



Those of us who are not naturalists, but who have had long ex- 

 perience of animals and plants hi' their natural state in the bush, 

 could very easily follow Darwin had he adhered to the laws of varia- 

 tion throughout. For instance, in his chapter on cattle and their 

 variations, he says : " On the Ladrone Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, 

 immense herds of cattle, which were wild in the year 1741, are de- 

 scribed as ; milk white, except their ears, which are generally black.' 

 The Falkland Islands, situated tar south, with all the conditions of 

 life as different as it is possible to conceive from those of the Ladrones, 

 offer a most interesting case. Catt e have run wild there during 

 eighty or ninety years ; and in the southern districts the animals are 

 mostly white, with their feet, or whole heads, or only their ears, 

 black. So that in these two archipelagoes we see that the cattle tend 

 to become white with colored ears. In other parts of the Falkland 

 Islands other colors prevail. Near Port Pleasant brown is the com- 

 mon tint ; round Mount Usborne, about hah the animals in some of 

 the herds were lead or mouse colored, which elsewhere is an unusual 

 tint. These latter cattle, though generally inhabiting high land, breed 

 about a month earlier than other cattle ; and this circumstance would 

 aid in keeping them distinct and in perpetuating this peculiar color." 



It is worth recalling to mind that blue or lead-colored marks have 

 occasionally appeared on the wild white cattle of Chillingham Park 

 (England). So plainly different were the colors of the wild herds in 

 different parts of the Falkland Islands that in hunting them Admiral 

 Sullivan states : " Dark spots in one district, and white Spots in 

 another district were always looked out for on the distant hills. In 

 the intermediate districts intermediate colors prevailed." Whatever 

 I he cause- may lie. says Darwin, "this tendency in the wild cattle of 

 tin- Falkland Islands, which are all descended from a few brought 

 from La Plata, to break up into herds of three different colors is an 

 interesting fact." This appears to be caused by the laws of variation 

 and natural selection, but prohablv there are other causes. 



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