The Zoologist— September, 1868. 1347 



to predict that the future will be simply a continuation of the past, 

 an inevitable sequel to the preseut. 



Races of men and animals are in constant antagonism, and one raee 

 of men, that which philosophers have called Caucasian, is continually 

 pressing forwards towards the sole sovereignty of the earth : we still 

 behold other vast races of men like the Chinese ; races of huge beasts 

 like the elephant; races of gigantic birds like the ostrich; in undis- 

 turbed possession of their original allotment of earth's surface ; their 

 peace, prosperity and power never apparently jeopardized, although 

 sometimes interrupted by domestic jars; but history reveals so many 

 gaps that have occurred by the extinction of races through the in- 

 strumentality of the Caucasian, that we feel certain such gaps will 

 continually recur : we may accustom ourselves to look so deep into 

 futurity, illuminated only by the light of past and passing events, that 

 we cannot fail to prophecy that one favoured race of men is slowly but 

 assuredly becoming sole master and occupant of the earth. 



But the Caucasian in his onward course is not alone ; as: he moves 

 forward he attracts or creates a fauna and flora of his own. The 

 negro; the dog, the cat, the horse, the cow, the sheep, the pig; the 

 turkey, the goose, the barn-door fowl ; the honey bee ; these are his 

 companions, whether to serve him as slaves or for food : wheat, barley, 

 peas and beans spring up beneath his feet. He bids fair to exterminate 

 all that does not administer to his wants or his pleasures — in a word, 

 to his will. Every other man will be his slave, every animal will be a 

 domesticated animal. The only exceptions will occur in the rat, 

 mouse, sparrow, cockroach, cricket, bug, flea, dock, thistles, and such 

 other voluntary companions as are dependent on his bounty, however 

 grudgingly bestowed. 



The foot- prints of such a future are perpetually intruding themselves 

 on the present. No one who gives his attention to the subject for a 

 single hour can doubt that the change is progressing. It is clearly 

 "written on the earth's surface, marked as plainly as the hours and 

 minutes on the dial-plate of a clock. Entire continents and islands, 

 America, Australia, Tasmania, are changing their men and animals: 

 even now the boundless plains of the Pampas resound with the hoofs 

 of ten thousand horses, although a few years back a horse was as un- 

 known as a phoenix : even now English weeds grow in the streets of 

 Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide; even now a hundred plants grow 

 wild in Philadelphia that are alien to the soil. Even now the once 

 dominant inhabitants of the land exist only as a source of innocent 



