18G7.] The Polynesians and their Migrations. 161 



acknowledging such tremendous powers, we may mention that 

 sailors who have irritated cephalopoda with their boathooks, have 

 had their naked arms, immersed in the water, suddenly seized by 

 the suckers, while the animal in its fury has endeavoured to plunge 

 its beak-like mouth into the flesh. 



But these more highly organized and more locomotive animals 

 do not appear to leave such lasting memorials of their presence as 

 those of simple construction . Their mission is essenti ally destructive. 

 They keep down redundancy of life, but we do not find that they 

 raise atolls hke the corals. 



We must, however, qualify this statement by limiting it to com- 

 paratively modern times, for as the late Dr. Mantell remarked, " The 

 living species are but representatives of the countless myriads which 

 swarmed in the ancient seas."* Their fossil remains comprehend 

 the most varied and striking forms of extinct beings that occur in 

 the sedimentary strata, from the earliest secondary to the latest 

 tertiary formations. Their fossil remains consist of the external 

 shells, the osselet, or the internal calcareous support, the ink- 

 bladder, with its inspissated contents or sepia ; the mandibles, and 

 some of the soft parts in a state of " molluskite." 



This imperfect sketch of the nervous system of the invertebrates, 

 and. its relation to the functions which it performs, must serve as 

 an introduction to the study of those higher types to which I hope 

 at no distant period to direct attention. In these the relations 

 of structure and function will be more clearly appreciable, and the 

 connection between both and the objects of animal existence will 

 be made manifest. 



fill. THE POLYNESIANS AND THEIE MIGRATIONS. 



By Alfred E. Wallace, F.E.Gr.S., &c. 



The origin of the various races of the islands of the Pacific has 

 always been one of the most difficult problems for the believers in 

 the unity and the recent origin of man. Their diversity of physical 

 features, of civilization, and of language, the absence of any conti- 

 nental races to which they could be affiliated, and the wide spaces 

 of ocean over which they are distributed, have hitherto seemed to 

 indicate that their origin dates from a period so remote that we 

 cannot hope to determine it with any approach to certainty. 



M. Quatrefages, however, an eminent anthropologist, has cou- 

 rageously attempted to solve the enigma of the origin of the Poly- 

 nesians, the most important of the Pacific races. He very properly 



* 'Medals of Creation.' p. 448. 



t ' Les Polynesiens et leurs Migrations,' par M. de Quatrefages, Membre de 

 l'lnstitut, Professeur au Museum. Paris, pp. 199. Arthur Bertrand, Editeur, 

 21, Rue Hautefeuille. 



VOL. rv. M 



