280 ABSENCE OF INTERMEDIATE VARIETIES [Chap. X. 



by numerous, fine, intermediate, fossil links, by asking ourselves 

 whether, for instance, geologists at some future period will be able 

 to prove that our different breeds of cattle, sheep, horses, and dogs 

 are descended from a single stock or from several aboriginal stocks ; 

 or, again, whether certain sea-shells inhabiting the shores of North 

 America, which are ranked by some conchologists as distinct species 

 from their European representatives, and by other conchologists as 

 only varieties, are really varieties, or are, as it is called, specifically 

 distinct. This could be effected by the future geologist only by 

 his discovering in a fossil state numerous intermediate gradations ; 

 and such success is improbable in the highest degree. 



It has been asserted over and over again, by writers who believe 

 in the immutability of species, that geology yields no linking forms.. 

 This assertion, as we shall see in the next chaptei, is certainly 

 erroneous. As Sir J. Lubbock has remarked, " Every species is a 

 link between other allied forms." If we take a genus having a score 

 of species, recent and extinct, and destroy four-fifths of them, no- 

 one doubts that the remainder will stand much more distinct from 

 each other. If the extreme forms in the genus happen to have 

 been thus destroyed, the genus itself will stand more distinct from 

 other allied genera. What geological research has not revealed, is 

 the former existence of infinitely numerous gradations, as fine as- 

 existing varieties, connecting together nearly all existing and extinct 

 species. But this ought not to be expected; yet this has been 

 repeatedly advanced as a most serious objection against my views. 



It may be worth while to sum up the foregoing remarks on the 

 causes of the imperfection of the geological record under an imagi- 

 nary illustration. The Malay Archipelago is about the size of 

 Europe from the North Cape to the Mediterranean, and from Britain 

 to Russia ; and therefore equals all the geological formations which 

 have been examined with any accuracy, excepting those of the 

 United States of America. I fully agree with Mr. Godwin- Austen, 

 that the present condition of the Malay Archipelago, with its nume- 

 rous large islands separated by wide and shallow seas, probably 

 represents the former state of Europe, whilst most of our formations 

 were accumulating. The Malay Archipelago is one of the richest 

 regions in organic beings ; yet if all the species were to be collected 

 which have ever lived there, how imperfectly would they represent 

 the natural history of the world ! 



But we have every reason to believe that the terrestrial pro- 

 ductions of the archipelago would be preserved in an extremely 

 in perfect manner in the formations which we suppose to be there 

 accumulating. Not many of the strictly littoral animals, or of 



