354 



NATURE 



\Aug. 29, 1872 



expedient. The birds and seals are not frightened by 

 being stoned or shot ; they don't know what stones and 

 guns'mcan, and the Hies are not frightened or discouraged 

 by having any amount of their comrades killed. When a 

 boat was coming olT shore, the usual occupation, in order 

 to prevent carrying tlie nuisances on board, was for every- 

 body to be picking the Hies off themselves (almost as they 

 would burri), killing them and throwing them into the 

 water from the time of leaving the beach to the arrival on 

 the deck of the ship ; and the last fly slaughtered before 

 you go into the cabin is no more afraid of you than the 

 first one you slew at the beach. They are not biting flies — 

 we have escaped trouble from mosquitoes and biting flics 

 during the whole voyage — but they are crawling, ticlding, 

 adhesive, tantalising creatures. It was pleasant to find 

 here at the Galapagos a species of penguin, smaller and 

 more sober in dress than our old friends of the Straits of 

 Magellan, but with the same winning, cunning manners 

 that made the birds in the Straits such favourites with our 

 party. And while speaking of the birds of these islands, 

 I would not forget the splendid flamingoes, six feet high, 

 of which we got many fine specimens. They sailed about 

 in parties of "twelve or twenty birds together, making long 

 lines of scarlet flame floating through the air. We tried 

 their flesh on the table, and found it the most delicious 

 game, fully equal to the canvasback, as it seemed to us. 



" One lesson I must confess to having learned at Inde- 

 fatigable Island. 1 saw there indisputable proof that the 

 surf of the sea is capable of rounding angular fragments 

 of lava into pebbles, somewhat resembling in shape (but 

 not at ail in polish and grooving) glacial boulders. I had 

 always from boyhood doubted the power of the sea to 

 make angular fragments round ; 1 had supposed that the 

 action of the surf upon such fragments would be simply 

 to pack them into^a sort of iMcAdam's roadway. And 

 even now, having had this proof that under peculiar cir- 

 cumstances thesea can make a tolerable imitation of 

 drift, 1 am not a whit more ready to believe that the sea 

 made the drift itself. You may prove to me experimentally 

 that flour can be made from wheat with a pestle and 

 mortar, but that will not convince me that the flour 

 markets of the world arc thus supplied. There are one 

 or two little colonies on the island, but the colonists have 

 a hard life, and there can hardly be any agriculture there 

 for centuries to come. At present the two main products 

 of the islands are terrapins (galapos), which are almost 

 exhausted, and wild pigs, which are of little worth, and 

 which are destroying the wild plants and animals. The 

 archipelago offers at present a fine opportunity for a 

 naturahst, who desires to make a residence here for several 

 years, and thoroughly explore their structure and their 

 productions, to throw a strong light upon the great modern 

 question of the origin of species, and the doctrines of 

 evolution. Younger than Juan Fernandez, purely volcanic, 

 bringing no seeds with them from the bottom of the sea, 

 not having had time to alter and amend species intro- 

 duced from the mainland, how did these islands come in 

 possession of their peculiarly organised beings— their 

 Bluntnoses for example.? This was the question con- 

 stantly recurring to me during my visit to the Galapagos, 

 as it had been at Juan Fernandez. Prof. Agassiz gave us 

 a little talk one day on our way to Panama, and discussed 

 the same point. Expressing his warm admiration for 

 Darwin's moral and intellectual character, and earlier 

 scientific labours, he said that he considered his present 

 influence on science very pernicious as favouring the habit 

 of ' filling up the wide gaps of knowledge by inaccurate 

 and superficial hypothesis.' What we need in order to 

 extend our knowledge of the origin of species, is not 

 hypothesis and speculation, but a careful collation of 

 facts, and a careful extension of our observation of 

 facts. The hypothesis that the differences of species 

 were produced by variations taking place in un- 

 limited, in indefinitely long periods of time, is, at all 



events, strongly negatived by this occurrence of such 

 marked peculiarities of difference from the surrounding 

 world, in an archipelago that bslongs wholly to the pre- 

 sent geological epoch, and has not existed an indefinite 

 time. It was very pleasant to us all to hear this greatest 

 and most earnest opponent of Darwin rendering with such 

 manifest sincerity his tribute of admiration for Darwin's 

 genius and industry, and confessing with such evident 

 pride his warm personal love toward him. As to the 

 question of the origin of species, 1 think we were all will- 

 ing to leave it a question. Darwin's hypothesis of 

 gradual variation of species, and the natural selection for 

 preservation of those whose variations were favourable to 

 them in the struggle for life, seems to me to have few facts 

 to sustain it, and very many to oppose it. At the same 

 time it must be conceded that all the maxims of meta- 

 physics and theology combine in assuring the man of 

 science that he is always right in assuming the utmost 

 paucity of original causes. The universe is certainly 

 framed with infinite skill and wisdom, and there never will 

 be found two different things, where one would answer. 

 If the present existing forces of nature can bring an Am- 

 blyrhynchus and an Iguano out of one common parent, 

 it would have been a waste of creative power to make two 

 parents ; that concession to the doctrine of evolution is 

 demanded by philosophy and the principle of least action. 

 Put the facts of zoology seem to me to indicate clearly 

 that the present acting forces of nature can do no such 

 thing. 



THE LATE PROF. DR. h. KAISER 



ON July 28 last died Prof. Kaiser, Director of the 

 Leyden Observatory. 



Kaiser was born on June 10, 1808, at Amsterdam, 

 where he was educated by his father, and, after the latter's 

 death, by his uncle, J. F. Kaiser, himself a zealous pro- 

 moter of astronomical research. In 1828 young Kaiser, 

 whose love for astronomy had at an early period shown 

 itself, was appointed assistant at the Leyden Observatory, 

 which was then superintended by Prof Wylenbrock. Till 

 1S37 he remained in this position, improving himself by 

 the study of all the best works in his department, when 

 he was appointed Professor of Astronomy in Leyden 

 L'niversity and Director of the Observatory. It is well 

 known that this appointment marks the beginning of an 

 epoch in the history of astronomy in the Netherlands. 

 Py unwearied exertions he soon collected some good in- 

 struments, and by means of his numerous and partly 

 popular lectures he kindled such an interest in astronomy 

 among the people that, in the year 1856, one of the items 

 in the Budget was the cost of erecting a new Observatory. 

 This he entered in i860, furnished with many new instru- 

 ments. This was followed in 1 866 by permission, obtained 

 through his never-tiring exertions, to publish " Annals." 

 Notwithstanding that in the spring of this year he was 

 seized with severe chest disease, which became a sad hin- 

 drance to his labours, he occupied himself with the editing 

 of the '' Annals," and with the improvement of the organi- 

 sation and instruments of the Observatory. On the 4th 

 of November last he set to work to perform some calcula- 

 tions necessary to complete a lecture for the third volume 

 of the "Annals," on "The Measurement of the Diameters 

 of Planets," and on the day after was seized with a 

 h;emorrhage which made his illness assume a more critical 

 character. Even from this attack he might have rallied 

 with returning spring, had it not been for the death of his 

 wife, with whom he had been happy for 41 years. From 

 that blow he never recovered. 



That astronomy has sustained a great loss in Kaiser, 

 all who take an interest in the science must feel. It is to 

 be hoped that ere long a worthy account of his life and 

 labours will be given to the world. 



