evolution theory. With a few exceptions they are referable to 
existing genera, hut there is that somewhat greater divergence from 
recent forms than we find among the later mammalia of the 
Pleistocene period, which we ought to find if evolution he true. 
For example, Ur sits arvernensis from the Forest bed, is further 
removed from existing hears, than is the later form Ursus spelceus 
of our caverns. In the same way the characteristic Elephas 
meridionalis of the Cromer coast, decidedly approaches nearer to 
the older form mastodon, than does the mammoth, Elephas primi- 
(jenius, which was the contemporary of primeval man in Britain. 
The Pleistocene animals, with a very few exceptions, differ hut 
little from existing forms, perhaps not more than do the different 
breeds of our domestic animals from each other. But there is just 
that difference between fossil and recent animals as to cause 
palaeontologists to disagree, as in the case of the cave lion or the cave 
hear, whether the former are identical or not with existing species. 
Ho new wild animal has been introduced into Europe, Professor 
Dawkins tells us, since the Pleistocene period, except perhaps the 
common rat and the elk ; hut on the other hand we have the 
appearance of the domestic animals, such as the swine, dog, sheep, 
goat, horse, and ox, and some of the various breeds of these, as I 
have before remarked, differ quite as much, inter se, as do the 
forms known to us from geological specimens, which naturalists 
deem worthy of specific distinction. Mr. Darwin says, that the 
dogs of Queen Elizabeth’s time would present the appearance of 
different species, compared with those with which we are familiar. 
If we add to all this, — and facts such as those I have mentioned 
might be adduced to almost any extent, — that the present 
geographical distribution of mammals can not only be without any 
difficulty made to fit in with the different faunas which in later 
Tertiary times inhabited different portions of the earth’s surface,* 
* In the Nineteenth Century for December last, there appeared an article by 
Dr. Sclater, giving some facts in geographical distribution which appeared to 
him to be inconsistent with evolution ; but Mr. Wallace’s reply, two months 
later, gives us an instructive example of the way in which such apparent 
difficulties disappear in the light of fuller knowledge of the subject. 
