Thoughts on Species. 369 



required some skill to build a snow-hut properly, but it was soon 

 learned. The doctor here exhibited a rough diagram, and des- 

 cribed the process. In answer to a question, he said the Esqui- 

 maux would attack a white bear, and did not consider him a pe- 

 culiarly dangerous animal. A musk ox, when wounded, was 

 much more so. He had killed several. The robes were of the 

 finest kind, and the under fur he had had manufactured into 

 shawls as fine as cashmere. These skins were not brought into 

 market, the Esquimaux reserving them for their own use. 



ART. XXXV. — Thoughts on Species; by James D. Dana. 

 Read before the American Association at Montreal, Angust 13th, 185T.* 



While direct investigation of individual objects in nature is 

 the true method of ascertaining the laws and limits of species, 

 we have another source of suggestion and authority in the com- 

 prehensive principles that pervade the universe. The scource of 

 doubt in this synthetic mode of reaching tntth consists in our 

 imperfect appreciation of universal law. But science has already 

 searched deeply enough into the different departments of nature 

 to harmonize many of the thoughts that are coming in from her 

 wide hmits ; and it is well, as we go on in research, to compare 

 the results of observations with these' utterings of her universality. 



I propose to present some thoughts on species from the latter 

 point of view, reasoning from central principles to the circum- 

 ferential, and, if I mistake not, we shall find the fight from this 

 direction sufficiently clear to illumine a subject which is yet in- 

 volved in doubts and difficulties. 



The questions before us at this time are — 



1. What is a species ? 



2. Are species permanent ? 



3. What is the basis of variations in species ? 

 1. What is a species? 



It is common to define a species as a group comprising such 

 individuals as are alike in fundamental qualities ; and then by 

 way of elucidation, to explain what is meant by fundamental 

 qualities. But the idea of a group is not essential ; and more- 

 over it tends to confuse the mind by bringing before it, in the 



* From Silliman's Journal. 

 D 



