ON DISTRIBUTION. 
23 
the Neilgherry hills, which are far away. It does not, 
so far as I am aware, occur in the streams at the foot 
of the Khasia hills ; at any rate, it is not common in 
them, while of numerous kinds that are met with 
below the ridge, one can find no trace in the streams 
above. 
Much patient and careful investigation would be 
required before any definite conclusion could be arrived 
at in cases like these. I merely mention the facts as 
they occur to me, in order to show what interesting 
inquiries present themselves in prosecuting the study 
of Natural History, It need not be merely a pedantic 
affair of long names and formulae, nor is there any 
absolute necessity for making it a cause of jealousy and 
bickering; on the contrary, it may be made a delightful 
and perennial source of amusement and interest, while 
out of it spring problems which elevate the study to the 
rank of a science, and connect it in close relationship 
with Geography, Meteorology, and Astronomy. 
Such problems as hinge on the geographical distri- 
bution of species cannot be answered off-hand ; they 
necessitate a great amount of patient observation ; our 
knowledge as yet is very imperfect ; in fact, we may 
say that what we now know is only sufficient to indi- 
cate the lines on which further inquiries can be most 
usefully made. There is plenty still to be done : of 
hardly one single district or river of India can we say 
that we know what fishes are, and (which is more im- 
portant still) what kinds are not to be found there. 
Of hardly any species do we know its exact range, or 
