Origin of Species Variorum

Comparison with 1866

the same way as the productions of real islands have everywhere yielded to continental forms lately naturalised there through man's agency. ↑

I am very far from supposing that all difficulties in regard to the distribution and affinities of the allied species, which live in the northern and southern tem- perate zones and on the mountains of the intertropical regions, are removed on the views above given. It is extremely difficult to understand how a vast number of peculiar forms confined to the tropics could have been therein preserved during the coldest part of the Glacial period. The number of forms in Australia, which are related to European temperate forms, but which differ so greatly that it is impossible to believe that they could have been modified since the Glacial period, perhaps indicates some much more ancient cold period, even as far back as the miocene age, in accordance with the recent speculations of certain geologists. So again, as I am informed by Mr. Bates, the strongly marked character of several species of Carabus, inhabiting the southern parts of America, indicates that their common progenitor must have been introduced at some early period; and other analogous facts could be given. The exact lines and means of migration during the recent Glacial period cannot be indicated; nor the reason why certain species and not others have migrated; why certain species have been modified and have given rise to new groups of forms, and others have remained unaltered. ↑ We cannot hope to explain such facts, until we can say why one species and not another becomes naturalised by man's agency in a foreign land; why one species ranges twice or thrice as far, and is twice or thrice as common, as another species within their own homes. ↑

I have said that many difficulties remain to be solved: some of the most remarkable are stated with admirable clearness by Dr. Hooker in his botanical works on the antarctic regions. These cannot be here discussed. I will only say that, as far as regards the occurrence of identical species at points so enormously remote as Kerguelen Land, New Zealand, and Fuegia, I believe that towards the close of the Glacial period, icebergs, as suggested by Lyell, have been largely concerned in their dispersal. But the existence of several quite distinct species, belonging to genera exclusively confined to the south, at these and other distant points of the southern hemisphere, is, on the theory of descent with modification, a far more remarkable case of difficulty. For some of these species are so distinct, that we cannot

the same way as the productions of real islands have everywhere lately yielded to continental forms, naturalised by man's agency. ↑

I am far from supposing that all difficulties are removed on the view here given in regard to the range and affinities of the allied species which live in the northern and southern temperate zones and on the mountains of the intertropical regions. ↑ ↑ Very many difficulties remain to be solved. I do not pretend to indicate the exact lines and means of migration, or the reason why certain species and not others have migrated; why certain species have been modified and have given rise to new groups of forms, and others have remained unaltered. We cannot hope to explain such facts, until we can say why one species and not another becomes naturalised by man's agency in a foreign land; why one ranges twice or thrice as far, and is twice or thrice as common, as another species within their own homes.

I have said that many difficulties remain to be solved: some of the most remarkable are stated with admirable clearness by Dr. Hooker in his botanical works on the antarctic regions. These cannot be here discussed. I will only say that as far as regards the occurrence of identical species at points so enormously remote as Kerguelen Land, New Zealand, and Fuegia, I believe that towards the close of the Glacial period, icebergs, as suggested by Lyell, have been largely concerned in their dispersal. But the existence of several quite distinct species, belonging to genera exclusively confined to the south, at these and other distant points of the southern hemisphere, is, on my theory of descent with modification, a far more remarkable case of difficulty. For some of these species are so distinct, that we cannot