310 OWEN'S POSITION IN 



Toxodon occupied a position between groups 

 which, in existing nature, are now widely separated. 

 The existence of one more extinct ' intercalary ' 

 type was established. 



From another point of view, this maiden essay 

 in palaeontology possesses great interest. 



It is with reference to Owen's report upon 

 the remains of Toxodon that Darwin remarks 

 in his journal, six years later : ' How wonder- 

 fully are the different orders, at the present time 

 so well separated, blended together in different 

 points of the structure of the Toxodon ! ' while, 

 in his pocket-book for 1837, he records: 'In 

 July opened first note-book on Transmutation of 

 Species. Had been greatly struck from about 

 the month of previous March on character of 

 South American fossils, and species on Galapagos 

 Archipelago. These facts (especially latter) origin 

 of all my views.' l 



Unless it be in the ' Ossemens Fossiles,' I do 

 not know where one is to look for contributions to 

 palaeontology more varied, more numerous, and, 

 on the whole, more accurate, than those which 

 Owen poured forth in rapid succession between 

 1837 an d 1888. Yet there was no lack of strong 

 contemporaries at work in the same field. De 

 Blainville's ' Osteographie ; ' Louis Agassiz's 

 monumental work on fossil fishes, achieved under 

 the pressure of great obstacles and full of brilliant 



1 Life and Letters, vol. i. p. 276. 



