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OUR ANCESTRY.

To Mr. Punch.

"Sir

"I Think we are at length getting rid of the great difficulty— What is man? for there seems good reason to believe that he is radically and really a fish.

"Read from Mr. Darwin on The Origin of Species the following extract, which does not seem to have attracted as yet that attention it deserves:—

"I can, indeed, hardly doubt that all vertebrate animals having true lungs have descended by ordinary generation from an ancient prototype, of which we know nothing, furnished with a float-apparatus or swim-bladder."

"This doctrine may, at first view, appear startling to some; but we should be cautious in refusing it our belief. Had Mr. Darwin, in addition to the facts he adduces in support of his views, wielded the philological argument touched upon by Dean Trench, in his Study of Words, he might have made his case stronger, and to many more satisfactory. For if we can, from the careful study of a people's language, pretty correctly conclude what they were, or whence they sprang, I think we must admit that Mr. Darwin has the philological argument on his side in this matter. What is more common than to hear an individual characterised as 'a queer fish,' or, addressed, 'Give us your fin?' Then how easy it is, in the case of any two individuals apparently little dissimilar, to make 'fish of one and flesh of another.' Under certain circumstances and conditions of life, an individual is described as getting 'pale about the gills' or being 'like a fish out of the water,' and that, according to Mr. Darwin's theory, in a sense more appropriate and profound than may generally be attached to the expression. To what source then are we to trace such usages of language, if we reject his theory? He must be a dull man indeed who does not perceive that they are strongly in favour of it. And, moreover, when we take these usages in connection with the fact that we lately had amongst us an actual live talking fish, it appears inconsistent with sound reasoning to doubt that that talking fish was the missing link, in this quarter, found; and that the question as to our ancestry is thus decided.

"You, yourself, Sir, did good service, the other week, to the cause of this scientific investigation in its more advanced stage, by pointing out that the missing link between man and the Gorilla is undeniably found in the Irish Yahoo. And it is to be hoped that, as ray after ray of light thus dawns upon us, we shall in due time be able to complete the family register.

"I am, Sir, your Obedient Servant,

"Natural selection."

"Struggle for Life Place,

"Nov. 15th, 1862."