254 



VARIETIES OF ANIMALS. 



change, whatever it may be, is once effected, the race no longer 

 varies while under similar circumstances ; but to fancy that 

 every kind of mouse which differs externally from the mouse of 

 another country is a distinct species, is to me as difficult to 

 believe as that every variety of dog and every variety of the 

 human race constitute a distinct species. I think that naturalists 

 who assert the contrary are bound to examine the comparative 

 anatomy of all these varieties more fully, and to tell us how far 

 they differ. My own opinion is, judging from what I have 

 gathered on the subject from various sources, that their ana- 

 tomical arrangement is as uniformly similar as that of the 

 dogs and of the varieties of man. 



On East Falkland there are numbers of rabbits, whose stock 

 is derived from those carried there by Bougainville or the Spa- 

 niards. Among them were some black ones (when I was there), 

 which had been pronounced indigenous, or, at all events, not 

 brought from Europe. A specimen of these pseudo-indigenous 

 animals has been carefully examined by those to whom a new 

 species is a treasure, but it turns out to be a common rabbit. 



Sea-elephant and seal (both hair and fur-seal) were abundant 

 along the shores of the archipelago in former years, and by 

 management they might soon be encouraged to frequent them 

 again;* but now they are annually becoming scarcer, and if 

 means are not taken to prevent indiscriminate slaughter, at any 

 time of year, one of the most profitable sources of revenue at 

 the Falklands will be destroyed. 



Whales frequent the surrounding waters at particular sea- 

 sons, and they are still to be found along the coasts of Pata- 

 gonia and Tierra del Fuego (within easy reach from the Falk- 

 lands), though their numbers are very much diminished by 

 the annual attacks of so many whale-ships, both large and 

 small, which have made theFalklands their head-quarters during 

 the last twenty years. 



A valuable source of daily supply, and by salting, of foreign 



* On the little island * Lobos,' in the river Plata, passed and there- 

 fore to a certain degree disturbed daily by shipping, seals are numerous ; 

 being preserved like game, and destroyed only at intervals. 



