276 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



neglected, his "Method" will endure and become hoar with 

 time. 



The doctrine of the struggle for existence is unanswerable ; 

 it could be interpreted by the " man in the street " as equivalent 

 to the saying that all living creatures, plants as well as animals, 

 have to " fight it out among themselves." The result of that 

 struggle and the lines on which it is fought is the cardinal thesis 

 of Darwinism, and has made that question the dominant one 

 even with biologists who may not be considered as altogether 

 orthodox "selectionists." The 'Origin of Species' is not de- 

 pendent on its cleverness but on its wisdom ; it is not to be 

 patronised as the brilliant theory of a genius, but to be valued as 

 the production of a sage ; its greatest danger is from fiery apostles 

 who insist that it is to be accepted as a revelation once given 

 and for all time. If it has largely explained the hoiv, it has not, 

 nor could it have been expected to have, demonstrated the ivhy. 



The Life of a Fossil Hunter. By Charles H. Sternberg. New 

 York : Henry Holt & Co. London : George Bell & Sons. 



If any book can convey to the general reader a conception of 

 the zoological past by the palEeontological record, this is the one. 

 Much is taught by personal narrative, for such books are much 

 more widely read than purely scientific publications, and the 

 suggestions of the first are more easily appreciated by the 

 ordinary reader than the more scientifically arranged facts of 

 the latter, which by the uninitiated are easily misunderstood. 

 In Darwin's well-known narrative of his voyage in the 'Beagle' 

 how many palaBontological and geological conclusions have been 

 widely disseminated and assimilated among readers who may 

 possibly have read none of his other works ! As Mr. Sternberg 

 remarks near the end of his book : " The life that now is, how 

 small a fraction of the life that has been ! Miles of strata, moun- 

 tain high, are but the stony sepulchers of the life of the past." 



The life of a fossil-hunter is a somewhat new experience. We 

 are familiar with those of animal and plant collectors, but have 

 not before, at least so far as the present writer is aware, realized 

 the adventures, hardships, and methods of one who may be said 

 to have lived among ancient and prehistoric surroundings, and 



