129 
Mar. 31, 1910. The Queensland Naturalist. 
II ^ Now, if species do arise by the accuiiuiiation of 
small differences, it follows that between any living species 
and its parent foriiL there must have been hundreds, 
perhaps thousands, of connecting links. And here let me 
warn you against a pitfall many have fallen into, having 
first digoed it unconsciously. They are always on the 
look-out for “missing links” between existing species. 
Such can never have existed— the connection was always 
down the branches of the tree toward the trunk, and not 
across from leaf to leaf, or even from twig to twig. Much 
mis-spent ire has been lavished upon this bogey. 
12. — It follows, then, that every species has behind 
it a line of ancestors, getting less and less like as one goes 
back in time. There must have been myriads of forms 
shading into each other, and if the geological record were 
unbroken, those forms — at least, of the marine species— 
would lie entombed in the rocks ; for though all the indi- 
viduals would not be preserved, it is not possible to conceive 
that none escaped preservation during hundreds or 
thousands, or even millions of years. 
13. — Now comes the fact. This continuity of form 
does not exist. The gaps are far more numerous thaii the 
continuities. And the explanation given by all Darwinians, 
from Darwin himself, in 1859, to Wallace and 
Lankester. in 1908, is that though the chain itself was built 
link on link, many, perhaps most of the old links have 
broken away, and are lost for ever, while many, seemingly 
lost, onlv await discovery, like the Theroniorphs of Aich- 
angel and the Proboscidians of the Fayum. 
] series of sedimentary rocks is nowhere 
complete. There were long periods — chiefly duiing 
elevcxtion — when sedimentation was at » minimum, even 
when denudation overpowered it. The iineonformities, 
we know full well, mark long breaks in time, many of which 
are not filled in elsewhere, so that the blank is, as yet, 
total. The imperfection of the geological record is a very 
real tiling ; it is the daiiy lesson of the field geologist. 
Then, too, much of the earth still remains to be explored 
geologically, and this makes the recorded geological record 
more imperfect than nature has done. All these facts 
T admit to the fullest ; forty years and more have kept me 
on intimate terms Avith this imperfection in the held. And 
yet 1 venture to assert that it is not nearly so imperfect 
as has been believed. 
15.— But before discussing this, let us clearly under- 
stand how far we have got in our revieA\' ; — 
(a) Geologists have proved from the study of the 
stratified rocks, from their mode of formation, from the 
changes in elevation, metamorphism, etc., they have 
sul)sequently undergone, the denudation they have 
