SBLECTION NOT ALWAYS THE CAUSE. 3 



that are separated by the greatest distance, which also corresponds 

 with separation by the greatest number of valleys and mountain 

 spurs. 



I had read Darwin's account of the Galapagos Islands given in 

 "The Voyage of the Beagle," and had noted the astonishment with 

 which he had discovered that islands within sight- of each other were 

 the homes of closely related but diverse species — a marvel which 

 he in no way attempted to explain; and here, in the snails of 

 Hawaii, I had found differences more wonderful, for each valley of 

 the same island was the home of peculiar forms. When Darwin's 

 "Origin of Species" appeared in 1859 I read it with intense interest 

 and with complete assent to his argument that large groups of widely 

 divergent species had been derived from common ancestry; but the 

 more I meditated on the scope of natural and sexual selection as fac- 

 tors producing transformation, the more clearly I perceived that they 

 were not adequate to explain the diversity of these species exposed to 

 the same external conditions; neither did they afford any explana- 

 tion of why the areas of distribution for many of these species are so 

 extremely limited, while some species- of terrestrial moUusks are dis- 

 tributed over vast areas. 



II. Facts showing that in the case of many Divergent Species Diversity 

 OP Naturai, and Sexual Selection is either Wanting or, if Present, 

 IS THE Effect and not the Cause of the Divergence.* 



1 . In Many Cases of Divergence Diversity of Sexual Selection can not 

 be the Cause. 



In the case of moUusks, the diversity in colors and forms presented 

 by closely allied varieties and species can not be attributed to diver- 

 sity in the direct action of the sexual instincts of the different groups, 

 by which those of certain forms and colors are allowed to mate, to the 

 exclusion of all other forms and colors; for there is no reason to 

 believe that differences of form and color are capable of being at all 

 observed by the senses with which they are endowed. Even in the 

 case of highly endowed animals, where diversity in the styles of orna- 

 mentation desired in mates, and therefore diversity in the forms of 

 sexual selection in closely allied varieties and species, may be readily 

 granted, the problem of chief interest is not concerning the effect of 

 these divergent instincts, but rather concerning the causes by which 

 they have been produced; for why should an isolated section of a 

 species possess instincts in any degree differing from the instincts of 

 the main body of the species? Sexual selection is, therefore, an in- 



* In Chapter IV will be found illustrations of divergence under the same envi- 

 ronment. 



