WHAT IS DARWINISM? 161 



given and in various forms. In the last pro- 

 duction of his pen, he says : " As a Palaeontol- 

 ogist I have from the beginning stood aloof 

 from this new theory of transmutation, now 

 so widely admitted by the scientific world. Its 

 doctrines, in fact, contradict what the animal 

 forms buried in the rocky strata of our earth 

 tell us of their own introduction and succession 

 upon the surface of the globe." " Let us look 

 now at the earliest vertebrates, as known and 

 recorded in geological surveys. They should, 

 of course, if there is any truth in the transmu- 

 tation theory, correspond with the lowest in 

 rank or standing. What then are the ear- 

 liest known vertebrates ? They are Selachians 

 (sharks and their allies) and Ganoids (garpikes 

 and the like), the highest of all living fishes, 

 structurally speaking." He closes the article 

 from which these quotations are taken with the 

 assertion, " that there is no evidence of a di- 

 rect descent of later from earlier species in the 

 geological succession of animals." * It will be 

 observed that Agassiz is quoted, not as to mat- 

 ters of theory, but as to matters of fact. The 

 only answer which evolutionists can make to 

 this argument, is the imperfection of the geo- 



1 Atlantic Monthly, January, 1874. 

 11 



