Chap. IX. GEOLOGICAL KECOKD. 299 



ourselves whether, for instance, geologists at some 

 future period will be able to prove, that our different 

 breeds of cattle, sheep, horses, and dogs have 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 con- 

 chologists as distinct species from their European repre- 

 sentatives, and by other conchologists as only varieties, 

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

 distinct. This could be effected only by the future geo- 

 logist discovering in a fossil state numerous intermediate 

 gradations ; and such success seems to me improbable in 

 the highest degree. 



Geological research, though it has added numerous 

 species to existing and extinct genera, and has made the 

 intervals between some few groups less wide than they 

 otherwise would have been, yet has done scarcely any- 

 thing in breaking down the distinction between species, 

 by connecting them together by numerous, fine, inter- 

 mediate varieties ; and this not having been effected, 

 is probably the gravest and most obvious of all the 

 many objections which may be urged against my views. 

 Hence it will be worth while to sum up the foregoing 

 remarks, under an imaginary illustration. The Malay 

 Archipelago is of about the size of Europe from the 

 North Cape to the Mediterranean, and from Britain to 

 Russia ; and therefore equals all the geological forma- 

 tions 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 

 numerous large islands separated by wide and shallow 

 seas, probably represents the former state of Europe, 

 when most of our formations were accumulating. The 

 Malay Archipelago is one of the richest regions of the 



