120 REPORT— 1876. 



and, rememlDeiing liow often similar ambitious undertakings by aur scientific men 

 in combination with our Government have been baulked by untoward circum- 

 stances, we cainiot but express the sincere hope that former failures will serve as 

 useful warnings to ensure future success. I regret extremely mj' inability to say 

 more on this subject. 



I trust you will not think me to underrate the importance of the safe and 

 prosperous return of the ' Challenger ' from her voyage, when, though naming it 

 lirst, I ascribe to it the second place in the events of the past year as regards the 

 progress of zoological investigation. Other scientific expeditions have before now 

 left these shores and the shores of other countries, and have more or less fully 

 attained their purpose, while other expeditions will doubtless in due time be 

 organized and carried out with, we trust, like happy results. The voyage of the 

 ' Challenger,' though a highly important and, in many respects, a novel one, is 

 notwithstanding only a unit in a long series which began a century ago, and has 

 been continued at intervals to our own da)' ; nay, more, since the sailing of the 

 ' Challenger ' we have witnessed the departure of another and larger expedition 

 for the accomplishment of a still more arduous undertaking. But what I have nov>r 

 to speak of is a matter that will, if I am not mistaken, in after ages characterize 

 the present year as an epoch in the history of our sciences inferior only in im- 

 portance to that which marked some eighteen or nineteen years ago the promul- 

 gation of a reasonable Theory of Evolution by IMr. Darwin and Mr. "N^'allace. And 

 while it is to the latter of these two naturalists that we owe the boon that has 

 recently been conferred on us, it is unr[uestionably from the former labours of 

 both — miited yet distinct — that the boon acquires its greatest value. Without 

 those far higher, far vrider views which the Theory of Evolution enables us to take, 

 the serried array of facts that bristle throughout the two volumes of the 'Geo- 

 graphical Distribution of Animals'* which Mr. Wallace has just published would 

 have been but a comparatively meaningless aggregation of statements — the evi- 

 dence no doubt of labour almost uusm-passed, tlie accumulation of much that is 

 curious and of much that is suggestive, but, taken all in all, as serving to an unin- 

 telligible or insignificant end, if to any end whatever that was not misleading. 



As the case is, the result is very different. But I would a.^k you now, Witliout 

 the aid afforded by the Doctrine of Descent, would it have been possible to drav.', 

 as Mr. Wallace has so skilfuUy drawn, those legitimate conclusions from a con- 

 sideration of the animal life of Java (vol. i. pp. .352, o53), or to arrive at those 

 marvellous results with respect to the past history of Borneo (vol. i. pp. ooS, •3.50), 

 or even to indulge in those daring speculations with regard to the origin of the 

 Celebesiau fauna (vol. i. pp. 430-438} ? I cite these instances because they are 

 taken from that part of the world on which the author's labours have before shed 

 so much light, and with wliich his name is imperishably associated ; but there is 

 liardlj' any one of his summaries that does not place before us material for reflection 

 as astounding. 



While, however, assigning to the Theorj' of Evolution the chief glor}' in giving 

 a real and lasting value to the interpretation of the facts of Animal Distribution, I 

 must not omit acknowledging the share which Pliysical Geography has contributed 

 to that end, especially by its marine surveys, which furnish the zoologist with 

 data as to the depths of seas and oceans, and thereby enable him to judge as to 

 the former extent of land. It is therefore to be expected that voyages like that of 

 the ' Challenger,' when their results have been fully worlced out, will still further 

 add to our knowledge in this respect. Again, too. Geology (Ijut this follows 

 almost as a matter of course) has in its own line played an equal part. I would 

 that Botany could be mentioned in this connexion ; but here it seems as if the 

 eldest of the biological sciences were not, as she usuallj' is, in advance of the rest ; 

 and Mr. Wallace's suggestion (vol. ii. p. 162), that Zoology furnishes a key where- 

 with many of the difliculties besetting the studj- of the Distribution of BL-ints may 

 be unlocked, will doubtless meet with due attention from botanists. 



* The Geogi'aphieal Distribution of Animals, with a study of the relations of living and 

 extinct Faiuias as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's Surface. By Alfred Eussel 

 Wallace, Author of ' The Miday Archipelago,' &e. 8to, two vols. Loudon: 1870. 



