CHAPTER II 



THE WEB OF LIFE 



Correlation of Organisms as well as Correlation of Organs — What 

 the Metaphor of " The Web of Life " suggests — Dependence of 

 Living Creatures upon their Surroundings — Nutritive Chains 

 — Nexus between Mud and Clear Thinking — Correlation 

 between Catches of Mackerel and Amount of Spring Sunshine 

 — Nutritive Chains in the Deep Sea — Dependence of one 

 Organism on another for the Continuance of the Species 

 — Darwin's Instance of the Connection between Cats and 

 Clover — Scattering of Seeds — Interrelations between Fresh- 

 water Mussels and Fishes — Life-histories of Parasites — Far- 

 reaching Influence of Certain Animals: Earthworms — Termites, 

 or White Ants — The Hand of Life upon the Earth — Practical 

 Importance of a Realisation of the Web of Life. 



Naturalists, in the true sense, who study the 

 Ufe of Uving creatures in nature, have always 

 been distinguished by a keen perception of the 

 inter-relations of things. Whether we take Gilbert 

 White as representing the old school, or W. H. 

 Hudson as representing the new, we get from 

 their observations the same impression of nature 

 as a vibrating system, most surely and subtly in- 

 ter-connected. But it seems just to say that no 

 naturahst, before or since, has come near Darwin 

 in his reahsation of the web of Hfe, in his clear 

 vision and picture of the vast system of hnkages 

 that penetrates throughout the animate world. 



Correlation of Organisms as well as Corre- 

 lation OF Organs. — In thinking of a living body 

 we are accustomed to the idea of the correlation of 



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