General Sir John Ayde - "Indian Frontier Policy"

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New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: On the Origin of Species

C >> Charles Darwin >> On the Origin of Species




Although in oceanic islands the number of kinds of inhabitants is
scanty, the proportion of endemic species (i.e. those found nowhere
else in the world) is often extremely large. If we compare, for
instance, the number of the endemic land-shells in Madeira, or of the
endemic birds in the Galapagos Archipelago, with the number found on
any continent, and then compare the area of the islands with that of
the continent, we shall see that this is true. This fact might have
been expected on my theory, for, as already explained, species
occasionally arriving after long intervals in a new and isolated
district, and having to compete with new associates, will be eminently
liable to modification, and will often produce groups of modified
descendants. But it by no means follows, that, because in an island
nearly all the species of one class are peculiar, those of another
class, or of another section of the same class, are peculiar; and this
difference seems to depend on the species which do not become modified
having immigrated with facility and in a body, so that their mutual
relations have not been much disturbed. Thus in the Galapagos Islands
nearly every land-bird, but only two out of the eleven marine birds,
are peculiar; and it is obvious that marine birds could arrive at
these islands more easily than land-birds. Bermuda, on the other hand,
which lies at about the same distance from North America as the
Galapagos Islands do from South America, and which has a very peculiar
soil, does not possess one endemic land bird; and we know from Mr. J.
M. Jones's admirable account of Bermuda, that very many North American
birds, during their great annual migrations, visit either periodically
or occasionally this island. Madeira does not possess one peculiar
bird, and many European and African birds are almost every year blown
there, as I am informed by Mr. E. V. Harcourt. So that these two
islands of Bermuda and Madeira have been stocked by birds, which for
long ages have struggled together in their former homes, and have
become mutually adapted to each other; and when settled in their new
homes, each kind will have been kept by the others to their proper
places and habits, and will consequently have been little liable to
modification. Madeira, again, is inhabited by a wonderful number of
peculiar land-shells, whereas not one species of sea-shell is confined
to its shores: now, though we do not know how seashells are dispersed,
yet we can see that their eggs or larvae, perhaps attached to seaweed
or floating timber, or to the feet of wading-birds, might be
transported far more easily than land-shells, across three or four
hundred miles of open sea. The different orders of insects in Madeira
apparently present analogous facts.

Oceanic islands are sometimes deficient in certain classes, and their
places are apparently occupied by the other inhabitants; in the
Galapagos Islands reptiles, and in New Zealand gigantic wingless
birds, take the place of mammals. In the plants of the Galapagos
Islands, Dr. Hooker has shown that the proportional numbers of the
different orders are very different from what they are elsewhere. Such
cases are generally accounted for by the physical conditions of the
islands; but this explanation seems to me not a little doubtful.
Facility of immigration, I believe, has been at least as important as
the nature of the conditions.

Many remarkable little facts could be given with respect to the
inhabitants of remote islands. For instance, in certain islands not
tenanted by mammals, some of the endemic plants have beautifully
hooked seeds; yet few relations are more striking than the adaptation
of hooked seeds for transportal by the wool and fur of quadrupeds.
This case presents no difficulty on my view, for a hooked seed might
be transported to an island by some other means; and the plant then
becoming slightly modified, but still retaining its hooked seeds,
would form an endemic species, having as useless an appendage as any
rudimentary organ,--for instance, as the shrivelled wings under the
soldered elytra of many insular beetles. Again, islands often possess
trees or bushes belonging to orders which elsewhere include only
herbaceous species; now trees, as Alph. de Candolle has shown,
generally have, whatever the cause may be, confined ranges. Hence
trees would be little likely to reach distant oceanic islands; and an
herbaceous plant, though it would have no chance of successfully
competing in stature with a fully developed tree, when established on
an island and having to compete with herbaceous plants alone, might
readily gain an advantage by growing taller and taller and overtopping
the other plants. If so, natural selection would often tend to add to
the stature of herbaceous plants when growing on an island, to
whatever order they belonged, and thus convert them first into bushes
and ultimately into trees.

With respect to the absence of whole orders on oceanic islands, Bory
St. Vincent long ago remarked that Batrachians (frogs, toads, newts)
have never been found on any of the many islands with which the great
oceans are studded. I have taken pains to verify this assertion, and I
have found it strictly true. I have, however, been assured that a frog
exists on the mountains of the great island of New Zealand; but I
suspect that this exception (if the information be correct) may be
explained through glacial agency. This general absence of frogs,
toads, and newts on so many oceanic islands cannot be accounted for by
their physical conditions; indeed it seems that islands are peculiarly
well fitted for these animals; for frogs have been introduced into
Madeira, the Azores, and Mauritius, and have multiplied so as to
become a nuisance. But as these animals and their spawn are known to
be immediately killed by sea-water, on my view we can see that there
would be great difficulty in their transportal across the sea, and
therefore why they do not exist on any oceanic island. But why, on the
theory of creation, they should not have been created there, it would
be very difficult to explain.

Mammals offer another and similar case. I have carefully searched the
oldest voyages, but have not finished my search; as yet I have not
found a single instance, free from doubt, of a terrestrial mammal
(excluding domesticated animals kept by the natives) inhabiting an
island situated above 300 miles from a continent or great continental
island; and many islands situated at a much less distance are equally
barren. The Falkland Islands, which are inhabited by a wolf-like fox,
come nearest to an exception; but this group cannot be considered as
oceanic, as it lies on a bank connected with the mainland; moreover,
icebergs formerly brought boulders to its western shores, and they may
have formerly transported foxes, as so frequently now happens in the
arctic regions. Yet it cannot be said that small islands will not
support small mammals, for they occur in many parts of the world on
very small islands, if close to a continent; and hardly an island can
be named on which our smaller quadrupeds have not become naturalised
and greatly multiplied. It cannot be said, on the ordinary view of
creation, that there has not been time for the creation of mammals;
many volcanic islands are sufficiently ancient, as shown by the
stupendous degradation which they have suffered and by their tertiary
strata: there has also been time for the production of endemic species
belonging to other classes; and on continents it is thought that
mammals appear and disappear at a quicker rate than other and lower
animals. Though terrestrial mammals do not occur on oceanic islands,
aerial mammals do occur on almost every island. New Zealand possesses
two bats found nowhere else in the world: Norfolk Island, the Viti
Archipelago, the Bonin Islands, the Caroline and Marianne
Archipelagoes, and Mauritius, all possess their peculiar bats. Why, it
may be asked, has the supposed creative force produced bats and no
other mammals on remote islands? On my view this question can easily
be answered; for no terrestrial mammal can be transported across a
wide space of sea, but bats can fly across. Bats have been seen
wandering by day far over the Atlantic Ocean; and two North American
species either regularly or occasionally visit Bermuda, at the
distance of 600 miles from the mainland. I hear from Mr. Tomes, who
has specially studied this family, that many of the same species have
enormous ranges, and are found on continents and on far distant
islands. Hence we have only to suppose that such wandering species
have been modified through natural selection in their new homes in
relation to their new position, and we can understand the presence of
endemic bats on islands, with the absence of all terrestrial mammals.

Besides the absence of terrestrial mammals in relation to the
remoteness of islands from continents, there is also a relation, to a
certain extent independent of distance, between the depth of the sea
separating an island from the neighbouring mainland, and the presence
in both of the same mammiferous species or of allied species in a more
or less modified condition. Mr. Windsor Earl has made some striking
observations on this head in regard to the great Malay Archipelago,
which is traversed near Celebes by a space of deep ocean; and this
space separates two widely distinct mammalian faunas. On either side
the islands are situated on moderately deep submarine banks, and they
are inhabited by closely allied or identical quadrupeds. No doubt some
few anomalies occur in this great archipelago, and there is much
difficulty in forming a judgment in some cases owing to the probable
naturalisation of certain mammals through man's agency; but we shall
soon have much light thrown on the natural history of this archipelago
by the admirable zeal and researches of Mr. Wallace. I have not as yet
had time to follow up this subject in all other quarters of the world;
but as far as I have gone, the relation generally holds good. We see
Britain separated by a shallow channel from Europe, and the mammals
are the same on both sides; we meet with analogous facts on many
islands separated by similar channels from Australia. The West Indian
Islands stand on a deeply submerged bank, nearly 1000 fathoms in
depth, and here we find American forms, but the species and even the
genera are distinct. As the amount of modification in all cases
depends to a certain degree on the lapse of time, and as during
changes of level it is obvious that islands separated by shallow
channels are more likely to have been continuously united within a
recent period to the mainland than islands separated by deeper
channels, we can understand the frequent relation between the depth of
the sea and the degree of affinity of the mammalian inhabitants of
islands with those of a neighbouring continent,--an inexplicable
relation on the view of independent acts of creation.

All the foregoing remarks on the inhabitants of oceanic
islands,--namely, the scarcity of kinds--the richness in endemic forms
in particular classes or sections of classes,--the absence of whole
groups, as of batrachians, and of terrestrial mammals notwithstanding
the presence of aerial bats,--the singular proportions of certain
orders of plants,--herbaceous forms having been developed into trees,
etc.,--seem to me to accord better with the view of occasional means
of transport having been largely efficient in the long course of time,
than with the view of all our oceanic islands having been formerly
connected by continuous land with the nearest continent; for on this
latter view the migration would probably have been more complete; and
if modification be admitted, all the forms of life would have been
more equally modified, in accordance with the paramount importance of
the relation of organism to organism.

I do not deny that there are many and grave difficulties in
understanding how several of the inhabitants of the more remote
islands, whether still retaining the same specific form or modified
since their arrival, could have reached their present homes. But the
probability of many islands having existed as halting-places, of which
not a wreck now remains, must not be overlooked. I will here give a
single instance of one of the cases of difficulty. Almost all oceanic
islands, even the most isolated and smallest, are inhabited by
land-shells, generally by endemic species, but sometimes by species
found elsewhere. Dr. Aug. A. Gould has given several interesting cases
in regard to the land-shells of the islands of the Pacific. Now it is
notorious that land-shells are very easily killed by salt; their eggs,
at least such as I have tried, sink in sea-water and are killed by it.
Yet there must be, on my view, some unknown, but highly efficient
means for their transportal. Would the just-hatched young occasionally
crawl on and adhere to the feet of birds roosting on the ground, and
thus get transported? It occurred to me that land-shells, when
hybernating and having a membranous diaphragm over the mouth of the
shell, might be floated in chinks of drifted timber across moderately
wide arms of the sea. And I found that several species did in this
state withstand uninjured an immersion in sea-water during seven days:
one of these shells was the Helix pomatia, and after it had again
hybernated I put it in sea-water for twenty days, and it perfectly
recovered. As this species has a thick calcareous operculum, I removed
it, and when it had formed a new membranous one, I immersed it for
fourteen days in sea-water, and it recovered and crawled away: but
more experiments are wanted on this head. The most striking and
important fact for us in regard to the inhabitants of islands, is
their affinity to those of the nearest mainland, without being
actually the same species. Numerous instances could be given of this
fact. I will give only one, that of the Galapagos Archipelago,
situated under the equator, between 500 and 600 miles from the shores
of South America. Here almost every product of the land and water
bears the unmistakeable stamp of the American continent. There are
twenty-six land birds, and twenty-five of these are ranked by Mr.
Gould as distinct species, supposed to have been created here; yet the
close affinity of most of these birds to American species in every
character, in their habits, gestures, and tones of voice, was
manifest. So it is with the other animals, and with nearly all the
plants, as shown by Dr. Hooker in his admirable memoir on the Flora of
this archipelago. The naturalist, looking at the inhabitants of these
volcanic islands in the Pacific, distant several hundred miles from
the continent, yet feels that he is standing on American land. Why
should this be so? why should the species which are supposed to have
been created in the Galapagos Archipelago, and nowhere else, bear so
plain a stamp of affinity to those created in America? There is
nothing in the conditions of life, in the geological nature of the
islands, in their height or climate, or in the proportions in which
the several classes are associated together, which resembles closely
the conditions of the South American coast: in fact there is a
considerable dissimilarity in all these respects. On the other hand,
there is a considerable degree of resemblance in the volcanic nature
of the soil, in climate, height, and size of the islands, between the
Galapagos and Cape de Verde Archipelagos: but what an entire and
absolute difference in their inhabitants! The inhabitants of the Cape
de Verde Islands are related to those of Africa, like those of the
Galapagos to America. I believe this grand fact can receive no sort of
explanation on the ordinary view of independent creation; whereas on
the view here maintained, it is obvious that the Galapagos Islands
would be likely to receive colonists, whether by occasional means of
transport or by formerly continuous land, from America; and the Cape
de Verde Islands from Africa; and that such colonists would be liable
to modification;--the principle of inheritance still betraying their
original birthplace.

Many analogous facts could be given: indeed it is an almost universal
rule that the endemic productions of islands are related to those of
the nearest continent, or of other near islands. The exceptions are
few, and most of them can be explained. Thus the plants of Kerguelen
Land, though standing nearer to Africa than to America, are related,
and that very closely, as we know from Dr. Hooker's account, to those
of America: but on the view that this island has been mainly stocked
by seeds brought with earth and stones on icebergs, drifted by the
prevailing currents, this anomaly disappears. New Zealand in its
endemic plants is much more closely related to Australia, the nearest
mainland, than to any other region: and this is what might have been
expected; but it is also plainly related to South America, which,
although the next nearest continent, is so enormously remote, that the
fact becomes an anomaly. But this difficulty almost disappears on the
view that both New Zealand, South America, and other southern lands
were long ago partially stocked from a nearly intermediate though
distant point, namely from the antarctic islands, when they were
clothed with vegetation, before the commencement of the Glacial
period. The affinity, which, though feeble, I am assured by Dr. Hooker
is real, between the flora of the south-western corner of Australia
and of the Cape of Good Hope, is a far more remarkable case, and is at
present inexplicable: but this affinity is confined to the plants, and
will, I do not doubt, be some day explained.

The law which causes the inhabitants of an archipelago, though
specifically distinct, to be closely allied to those of the nearest
continent, we sometimes see displayed on a small scale, yet in a most
interesting manner, within the limits of the same archipelago. Thus
the several islands of the Galapagos Archipelago are tenanted, as I
have elsewhere shown, in a quite marvellous manner, by very closely
related species; so that the inhabitants of each separate island,
though mostly distinct, are related in an incomparably closer degree
to each other than to the inhabitants of any other part of the world.
And this is just what might have been expected on my view, for the
islands are situated so near each other that they would almost
certainly receive immigrants from the same original source, or from
each other. But this dissimilarity between the endemic inhabitants of
the islands may be used as an argument against my views; for it may be
asked, how has it happened in the several islands situated within
sight of each other, having the same geological nature, the same
height, climate, etc., that many of the immigrants should have been
differently modified, though only in a small degree. This long
appeared to me a great difficulty: but it arises in chief part from
the deeply-seated error of considering the physical conditions of a
country as the most important for its inhabitants; whereas it cannot,
I think, be disputed that the nature of the other inhabitants, with
which each has to compete, is at least as important, and generally a
far more important element of success. Now if we look to those
inhabitants of the Galapagos Archipelago which are found in other
parts of the world (laying on one side for the moment the endemic
species, which cannot be here fairly included, as we are considering
how they have come to be modified since their arrival), we find a
considerable amount of difference in the several islands. This
difference might indeed have been expected on the view of the islands
having been stocked by occasional means of transport--a seed, for
instance, of one plant having been brought to one island, and that of
another plant to another island. Hence when in former times an
immigrant settled on any one or more of the islands, or when it
subsequently spread from one island to another, it would undoubtedly
be exposed to different conditions of life in the different islands,
for it would have to compete with different sets of organisms: a
plant, for instance, would find the best-fitted ground more perfectly
occupied by distinct plants in one island than in another, and it
would be exposed to the attacks of somewhat different enemies. If then
it varied, natural selection would probably favour different varieties
in the different islands. Some species, however, might spread and yet
retain the same character throughout the group, just as we see on
continents some species spreading widely and remaining the same.

The really surprising fact in this case of the Galapagos Archipelago,
and in a lesser degree in some analogous instances, is that the new
species formed in the separate islands have not quickly spread to the
other islands. But the islands, though in sight of each other, are
separated by deep arms of the sea, in most cases wider than the
British Channel, and there is no reason to suppose that they have at
any former period been continuously united. The currents of the sea
are rapid and sweep across the archipelago, and gales of wind are
extraordinarily rare; so that the islands are far more effectually
separated from each other than they appear to be on a map.
Nevertheless a good many species, both those found in other parts of
the world and those confined to the archipelago, are common to the
several islands, and we may infer from certain facts that these have
probably spread from some one island to the others. But we often take,
I think, an erroneous view of the probability of closely allied
species invading each other's territory, when put into free
intercommunication. Undoubtedly if one species has any advantage
whatever over another, it will in a very brief time wholly or in part
supplant it; but if both are equally well fitted for their own places
in nature, both probably will hold their own places and keep separate
for almost any length of time. Being familiar with the fact that many
species, naturalised through man's agency, have spread with
astonishing rapidity over new countries, we are apt to infer that most
species would thus spread; but we should remember that the forms which
become naturalised in new countries are not generally closely allied
to the aboriginal inhabitants, but are very distinct species,
belonging in a large proportion of cases, as shown by Alph. de
Candolle, to distinct genera. In the Galapagos Archipelago, many even
of the birds, though so well adapted for flying from island to island,
are distinct on each; thus there are three closely-allied species of
mocking-thrush, each confined to its own island. Now let us suppose
the mocking-thrush of Chatham Island to be blown to Charles Island,
which has its own mocking-thrush: why should it succeed in
establishing itself there? We may safely infer that Charles Island is
well stocked with its own species, for annually more eggs are laid
there than can possibly be reared; and we may infer that the
mocking-thrush peculiar to Charles Island is at least as well fitted
for its home as is the species peculiar to Chatham Island. Sir C.
Lyell and Mr. Wollaston have communicated to me a remarkable fact
bearing on this subject; namely, that Madeira and the adjoining islet
of Porto Santo possess many distinct but representative land-shells,
some of which live in crevices of stone; and although large quantities
of stone are annually transported from Porto Santo to Madeira, yet
this latter island has not become colonised by the Porto Santo
species: nevertheless both islands have been colonised by some
European land-shells, which no doubt had some advantage over the
indigenous species. From these considerations I think we need not
greatly marvel at the endemic and representative species, which
inhabit the several islands of the Galapagos Archipelago, not having
universally spread from island to island. In many other instances, as
in the several districts of the same continent, pre-occupation has
probably played an important part in checking the commingling of
species under the same conditions of life. Thus, the south-east and
south-west corners of Australia have nearly the same physical
conditions, and are united by continuous land, yet they are inhabited
by a vast number of distinct mammals, birds, and plants.

The principle which determines the general character of the fauna and
flora of oceanic islands, namely, that the inhabitants, when not
identically the same, yet are plainly related to the inhabitants of
that region whence colonists could most readily have been
derived,--the colonists having been subsequently modified and better
fitted to their new homes,--is of the widest application throughout
nature. We see this on every mountain, in every lake and marsh. For
Alpine species, excepting in so far as the same forms, chiefly of
plants, have spread widely throughout the world during the recent
Glacial epoch, are related to those of the surrounding lowlands;--thus
we have in South America, Alpine humming-birds, Alpine rodents, Alpine
plants, etc., all of strictly American forms, and it is obvious that a
mountain, as it became slowly upheaved, would naturally be colonised
from the surrounding lowlands. So it is with the inhabitants of lakes
and marshes, excepting in so far as great facility of transport has
given the same general forms to the whole world. We see this same
principle in the blind animals inhabiting the caves of America and of
Europe. Other analogous facts could be given. And it will, I believe,
be universally found to be true, that wherever in two regions, let
them be ever so distant, many closely allied or representative species
occur, there will likewise be found some identical species, showing,
in accordance with the foregoing view, that at some former period
there has been intercommunication or migration between the two
regions. And wherever many closely-allied species occur, there will be
found many forms which some naturalists rank as distinct species, and
some as varieties; these doubtful forms showing us the steps in the
process of modification.