Introdução

Salinidade retrô

Invólucro que impregna a retina

Cristalina salina na intempérie

Vesga de toda cal

De todo sal que circula

Na líquida superfície ondulante

Enquanto ronca a rosca da lente

Intermitente

O saliente olho vaga

Blasfemo tradutor da realeza

Traga o ventre turvo

Escuriclaro obturado

Eletrizado

E cromatizado

Na plasmogenia salitrosa

Reluzente

Claro e quente

Nascente

Poema de Sérgio Araújo

No filme brasileiro, "Narradores de Javé", dirigido por Eliane Caffé e estrelado por José Dumont e Nelson Xavier, somos levados a vivenciar a história da pequena cidade de "Javé", que desaparecerá submergindo nas águas de uma represa. Seus moradores não poderão ser indenizados porque não possuem registros nem documentos das terras sobre as quais ergueram-se casas e sonhos. Desprotegidos e inconformados com a situação, descobrem que tudo poderia ser preservado se houvesse um patrimônio histórico/cultural de valor comprovado, em "documento científico", como foi dito pelas autoridades. Então, decidem escrever a história da cidade.

Para além de toda a poesia contida nesta representação filmica, existe a necessidade que uma população tem de sentir-se pertencente a um certo espaço/tempo de vivência ancestral e cultural (território) revelando-se, com o passar do tempo, numa busca pelo resgate, preservação, difusão e aprendizagem sobre o Patrimônio Cultural de uma comunidade, aqui definido como:

”Toda produção humana de ordem emocional, intelectual e material, independente de sua origem, época ou aspecto formal, bem como a natureza, que propiciem o conhecimento e a consciência do homem sobre si mesmo e sobre o mundo que o rodeia”. (ORIÁ apud GODOY, 1985).

Todo professor, como educador, não deve limitar-se ao cumprimento burocrático do seu papel na escola e na sociedade e, tampouco, a história deve ser a "disciplina desinteressante" que só fala de velharia, que está desligada das cosias práticas da vida, como comumente ouve-se nos corredores e pátios das escolas. A aprendizagem da história nas escolas deve ser contextualizada, partir das descobertas locais para ampliar a compreensão dos planos mais amplos de conhecimento e cultura de uma população. Por isso que a história local é importante e toda leitura que dela se fizer, deve estar integrada com as formas de cosntrução de conhecimentos pelos estudantes e pela comunidade como um todo.

Relendo a excelente obra do historiador Almir de Oliveira, "Salinas da Margarida: notícias históricas" e impulsionado por alguns documentos que encontrei em arquivos digitais, resolvi aprofundar a pesquisa para aprofundar o estudo da história local.

Uma das questões mais discutidas sobre a história de Salinas da Margarida é, sem dúvida, a origem do termo "MARGARIDA". Desde os registros orais aos resgates históricos em publicações, a Margarida se insinua ora como mulher, esposa e flor até perder-se num "Ponto" geográfico ou "Ponta" nas estratégias dos militares na Baía de Todos-os-Santos.

O que é e o que não é neste história vai depender do nosso esforço em juntar os cacos do passado para, no presente, de repente, aprender.

Capítulo I

A "Margarida" das Salinas

Rediscutindo a questão do nome

Almir de Oliveira, no livro"Salinas da Margarida: notícias históricas", nos relata as suas dificuldades iniciais no trabalho, indicando o termo "Margarida" como o mais difícil de ser entendido no contexto da significação do nome do município. Elege então duas versões para uma possível explicação: uma, que ele chamou de "Versão Romântica" a que atribui o nome "Margarida" - já que o termo "Salinas" está obviamente referindo-se à Companhia que processava o sal - a uma "suposta” homenagem do Comendador à sua esposa, ou mesmo à família". A outra, o nome de uma "Mulher Misteriosa" chamada Margarida. Versão esta que o autor descarta pela falta de registros junto à Cia. Salinas da Margarida, como suposta proprietária das terras ou pelo seu "valor social" e indica como uma possível explicação, mesmo que carente de confirmação, que: “o local já era denominado "Ponta da Margarida", sem nenhume relação com qualquer senhora assim chamada”. (OLIVEIRA, 2000).

Nos Capítulos IV e V do seu livro, Oliveira aponta um "Documento Esclarecedor": referências encontradas sobre a independência da Bahia onde aparece a denominação para este pedaço de terra como: "Ponto da Margarida". “Na época, chamava-se de PONTO local onde as guarnições militares costumavam permanecer (...) por esse detalhe, fica claro que o termo MARGARIDA nada tem a ver com a exploração do sal, pois que lhe é em muitos anos anterior. Se, mesmo assim, ainda houvesse alguma dúvida, para dirimi-la bastaria esclarecer um pormenor: em 1823, como visto, o local já era denominado MARGARIDA (Ponto da Margarida) e, no entanto, somente 15 anos depois, ou seja em 1838, é que nasceria Manoel de Souza Campos (...) A antiguidade do noma MARGARIDA invalida, portanto, a fantasiosa versão de que no local onde foram implantadas as salinas do Comendador Campos morava uma senhora assim chamada”. (OLIVEIRA, 2000

Não obstante a convicção e as fontes citadas, Oliveira admite uma nova possibilidade para o nome "Margarida" atribuindo à localidade do "Dourado" e às características do seu terreno, das flores que lá brotavam e que se replicavam nas terras do "Ponto", fazendo uma associação em que, um possível observador:

“(...) vendo tão vastos campos de flores amareladas, que de longe ofereciam visão semelhante a um tapete DOURADO, este termo ficasse denominando a um dos espaços geográficos. Na área de terra situada mais adiante, ao invés de ser colocada a mesma palavra que trazia a ideia , (que era semelhante nos dois lugares) para ficar mais fácil distinguir um espaço do outro e assim evitar-se qualquer equívoco, optou-se por usar o vocábulo que originava a ideia, ou seja, simplesmente chamar de MARGARIDA aos campos de flores que em tudo se assemelhavam ao primeiro. Com nomes diferenciados, anulava-se a possibilidade de confundir-se uma área a outra”. (OLIVEIRA, 2000)

É curioso observar que, no passeio pelos registros de fontes orais, fartos em nossa comunidade, e fontes documentais de outras ordens, os pesquisadores da nossa hstória local não bateram ainda o martelo para, definitivamente, explicar o termo "Margarida". O historiador Almir de Oliveira me parece mais inclinado a aceitar a hipótese de "Ponto da Margarida", nome esse que não esclarece, mas apenas justifica que "Margarida" já se apresentava como denominação anterior deste sítio geográfico.

Capítulo II

A enigmática Madame "Chanon"

Ignez Chandler

Em documento do Ministério da Justiça, o qual circunscreve os assuntos de uma Comissão Geral de Investigações (CGI) - Subcomissão de Investigações da Bahia, que versa sobre a denúncia de um vereador local (Eunápio Amorim) contra o ex-prefeito, Sr. manoel Dias de Albuquerque por, segundo ele, ter demolido a velha e primeira escola da comunidade e de ter se apropriado do material resultante da ação praticada em 1969 quando Albuquerque já era Vereador. No entanto, Observa-se que a referida escola, já se encontrava em ruínas desde 1957. Portanto, doze anos antes da demolição. O contexto histórico dessa denúncia e a situação política partidária em Salinas da Margarida, na época, talvéz possam explicar os motivos que geraram tal denúncia.

Segundo depoimento do Sr. Benedito José de Souza (Bidi), Vereador e testemunha de defesa de Albuquerque: "o Sr. Manoel Dias de Albuquerque, que é filho de Salinas da Margarida. Tendo êste servido ao Exército durante muitos anos, ao se reformar voltou a Salinas e ali promoveu o movimento para emancipação do distrito e constituição de um muinicípio autónomo; que constituído o município, o Sr. Mahoel Dias de Albuquerque candidatou-se a prefeito e foi eleito; que com relação à administração do Sr. Manoel Dias de Albuquerque esta foi boa, tendo êle realizado uma administração de trabalho e de muitas realizações; que não pode comparar com outras administrações por que o município era novo e o primeiro prefeito era justamente o Sr. Manoel Dias de Albuquerque; que entretanto faz restrinções ao ato daquele prefeito por ter destruído um prédio escolar que já estava em situação bem precária conforme atesta a fotografia que apresenta com êste depoimento. 0 depoente pretendia reconstruir o prédio já em estado de quase ruína, mas o prefeito Manoel Dias de Albuquerque preferiuu pô-lo abaixo para construir um outro prédio com verbas do Estado, em outro local o que de fato fêz, levantando um prédio com duas salas de aula e recreio para os meninos, prédio que está funcionando".

Toda essa "investigação" resulta de uma denúncia do Sr. Amorim, que, sendo eleito Vereador em Salinas da Margarida na gestão seguinte à gestão do Sr. Manoel Dias de Albuquerque como Prefeito, e, agora, adversário político do então Vereador Albuquerque, teve o seu manadto cassado por abandono. Como o Sr. Amorim era funcionário público federal e filiado à ARENA, partido de sustentação da Ditadura Militar, e pelos depoimentos prestados pelas testeminhas, dá-nos a supor que ele usava a sua influência e o denuncismo que caracterizou o regime militar no Brasil para tentar se vingar do Sr. Albuquerque que pertencia ao então MDB, oposição consentida à ARENA, partido da Ditadura.

Cito esse documento porque ele faz referência a esta escola - a primeira de Salinas da Margarida - e há uma passagem do depoimento do Sr. Benedito em que ele faz referência a uma tal “Senhora francesa” que teria doado a escola à comunidade como registra o escrivão do processo: "êste prédio porque êle fora oferecido às crianças da terra por uma Senhora francesa e o depoente como vereador estava interessado na reconstrução do prédio e na sua conservação". Como era do interesse do Vereador Benedito preservar preservar e não demolir a escola, ele fez correr uma "carta" em 1969 tentando conseguir contribuições financeiras da população.

O que chama a atenção é o fato de o Sr. Benedito ter colocado na carta o nome de “MADAME MARGARIDA” e, como uma espécie de complemento e/ou correção, risca o nome MARGARIDA e acrescenta, à caneta, o nome de “Ignez Chanon”.

Com base neste documento, que também é assinado pelo Vereador e então 1º Secretário, o Sr. João Gomes de Cerqueira, cemecei uma pesquisa para apurar, o que inicialmente supus, se tratava de uma referência à Senhora “MARGARIDA” que teria dado o nome à nossa cidade. Porém, apesar de tudo, não seria possível que a Madame Chanon fosse a nossa MARGARIDA posto que, como veremos a seguir, não teria idade para estar e nomear por sua relevância social, a localidade.

Como bem observa Almir de Oliveira, o nome Ponto da Margarida já está presente nos documentos históricos desde, pelo menos, 1823 e, com base em minhas pesquisas, isso pode ser constatado na “Carta hydrografica da Bahia de Todos os Santos: comprehendido o Reconcavo da Capital da Província do mesmo nome” datada de 1831, como podemos ver abaixo: É possível observar um mapa mais antigo, o “Plano Hydrographico da Bahia de Todos os Santos Metropoli do Brazil, feiro por Jozé Fernandes Portugal, em Pernanbúco no anno de M.DCCC.III (1803). Mas, se não foi esta Senhora, quem foi então a MADAME MARGARIDA? Ingez Chandler e não ‘Chanon” como aparece na carta dos vereadores? Tudo que pude levantar é que ela está sepultada em nosso semitério local, do lado esquerdo da Capela, e se chamou Ignez Chandler, que, de acordo com as inscrições no seu túmulo, nasceu em 13 de fevereiro, sem o ano de nascmento, e falaceu em 18 de agosto de 1915. Para fazer jus à honraria de dar o nome ao povoado, Ignez precisaria ter nascido bem antes de 1823 e isso pode até ter acontecido e ela ter morrido com 92 anos, pelo menos. Todavia, ao que parece, ela era estrangeira, talvez inglesa ou norte americana e não francesa, dado ao anglicanismo do sobrenome Chandler.

Capítulo III

Mouchez e Alfredo

O Almirante e o Geógrafo

A Marinha do Brasil rende homenagem a Mouchez e à sua empreitada e diz: “É digna de menção especial a última campanha hidrográfica francesa realizada no Brasil, chefiada pelo Capitão-de- Fragata Amedée Ernest Barthélémy Mouchez. No período de 1856 a 1860, Mouchez realiza o levantamento do Rio Paraguai, do Paraná até Assunção, o levantamento do porto de São Francisco do Sul e o reconhecimento do Arquipélago de Abrolhos, cujo Capitão-de-Fragata Mouchez levantamento vai terminar, posteriormente. Inúmeras são as cartas resultantes do paciente e meticuloso trabalho de Mouchez. São publicadas, em 1863, as cartas da Bahia ao Rio de Janeiro, da Bahia a Olivença, dos recifes de Itacolomis a Olivença, de Benevente à Barra Seca, de Benevente ao Cabo de São Tomé, da Ilha de Santa Maria a Tramandaí, de Tramandaí à Ilha dos Lobos, além dos planos dos portos de Vitória e Cabo Frio. É ressaltado, como magistral obra de hidrografia, realizada por Mouchez, o plano do Arquipélago de Abrolhos. Os trabalhos de Mouchez, nas costas do Brasil, de norte a sul, estenderam-se até 1868”.

Graças às contribuições de Mouchez na sua obra “Les Côtes du Brésil, Description et instructions Nautiques”, no ano de 1894, Alfredo Moreira Pinto publica a sua obra intitulada “Apontamentos para o Diccionario Geographico do Brazil de A a E e só mais tarde, Justiniano Moreira Pinto, filho de Alfredo, dando continuação à publicação do 4º volume da obra do seu pai, postumamente, publica o “Supplemento aos Apontamentos para o Diccionario Geographico do Brazil (com accréscimos e correcções A a Z), em 1935, com base nos manuscritos do seu pai e concluído por iniciativa do Presidente Getúlio Vargas. Justiniano classificou este trabalho do seu pai como: “obra, até agora inédita, que o saudoso autor com uma paciência prodigiosa colligiu, para dotar o paiz de mais uma valiosa fonte de informações a que hão de todos recorrer, á mais rápida conculta, do immenso território brasileiro”.

O trabalho minucioso de Alfredo, contou com a valorosa publicação de Mouchez para caracterizar o verbete Salinas da Margarida nesta obra que passo agora a dar conhecimento.

Capítulo IV

As Salinas segundo Alfredo

Aparece a Margarida

“SALINAS DA MARGARIDA. O dist. das Salinas da Margarida fica situado na ponta da Margarida, entre a enseada da Conceição de Pirajuhia e o canal de Nazareth, de fronte da cidade de Itapagipe, da qual dista seis milhas, e da foz do rio Paraguassú.

Para oeste dessa enseada estendem-se os povoados da Conceição de Pirajuhia, com uma capella, da Ponta da Barra, com uma capella da Boa Esperança, e Barra do Paraguassú, na foz do rio deste nome; e para leste os povs. da Matta, Porto do Pamauá, Salimnopolis ou Porto da Telha, Encarnação, com uma capella, Mutá, Cações e Barreiras do Jacuruna, estes três pertecentes ao dist. de Jaguaripe.

O pov. das Salinas fica situado na ponta da Margarida, denominada por Mouchez ponta do Homem Morto, e entre o rio Santa Luzia e o impropriamente denominado rio do Araçá, que não é mais do que um braço do salgado. Fica, parte, em terreno plano com proporções e parte em um planalto para uma grande cidade. Compõe-se de duas praças, umas quatro ou cinco ruas, bastante largas e rectas, e outras perpendiculares a estas e mais estreitas e illuminadas a kerosene, tem 27 casas, todas pertencentes á Companhia das Salinas, uma egreja em construcção e duas escolas publicas, uma para cada sexo.

A pov. ainda está em começo; o pouco que ha feito é devido aos esforços do engenheiro Horácio Urpias Júnior e do Commendador Manoel de Souza Campos, que empregaram grandes capitaes em enormes aterros, no nivelamento do terreno e na edificação das primeiras habitações. Foram esses beneméritos cidadãos os fundadores das Salinas. Contaram-me que os antigos proprietários do terreno, sobre o qual se ergue a aprazivel pov., foram três padres, que occupavam uma casa, onde celebravam missas e outras festividades religiosas em uma capella com a invocação de bastante extenso e Santa Quitéria.

Começou a aggrupar-se em tomo da residência dos padres um pequeno núcleo de população. Com o transcorrer dos tempos e com a morte dos três sacerdotes, o pequeno pov. desappareceu, ficando a ponta da Margarida deserta por mais de 50 annos. Havia no antigo pov. uma mulher preta, de nome Margarida, celebre pelo seu espirito religioso e que tinha grande ascendência sobre a população. A essa mulher deve a ponta o nome que ainda hoje conserva.

A povoação fica entre os muns. de Maragogipe e Jaguaripe e pertence ao de Itaparica, do qual constitue um dist. E' ligada á Itaparica e á Capital do Estado pelos vapores da Companhia Bahiana, que fazem uma viagem diariamente nos dias úteis As Salnas da Margarida abrangem uma grande área cortada por 1.700 tanques de diversas dimensões, inclusive 660 crystallizadores e egual numero de ahmentadores. Esses tanques recebem a agua salgada por meio de bombas centrífugas a vapor e um possante moinho de vento.

Apanhado o sal, é este conduzido em carros de ferro (Decauville), que caminham sobre trilhos, para grandes trapiches, sendo dous de 320 palmos de comprimento sobre 80 de largo e dous, os maiores, de 400 palmos de comprimento, sobre 100 palmos, um, e 118, outro, de largura, situados no porto de embarque, onde os navios atracam a uma ponte de madeira para carregar.

Esta ponte, de 210 palmos de comprimento total, pertence à Companhia das Salinas, que permitte que a ellas atraquem vapores do Lloyd.

Em uma casa de sobrado ficam as officinas da Companhia, as quaes se compõem de ferraria, fundição de bronze, serralheiro e carapinas. Em seguimento e quasi contíguas a estas salinas ficam outras no logar denominado Porto da Telha, ligadas á primeira por uma ponte de ferro sobre o riacho Carro Velho. Possuem 2.000 tanques, 880 crystallizadores e outros tantos ahmentadores. A agua é fornecida para estes tanques por meio de quatro bombas centrifugas, a vapor; e o sal conduzido para dous dos trapiches, situados no porto de embarque, por meio de carros de ferro inglezes, tirados por duas locomotivas. Possuem ainda um moinho americano de vento, que suspende agua doce para alimentação das caldeiras. Para o interior das salinas erguem-se 17 casas para os operários, todas modernas e pertencentes á Companhia. A producção total das duas salinas é de 12 milhões de litros, nas grandes safras, producção que pôde ser augmentada a mais do dobro. A época apropriada para a safra 6 dos mezes de Outubro a Abril.

As salinas pertencem actualmente a uma Companhia anonyma com o capital de mil duzentos e cincoenta contos. O dist. é regado pelos rios Carro Velho, Santa Luzia, Bulcão, Mombaça, Cayrú ou Piahú e Araçá. Comprehende os povs. denominados Barra do Paraguassú, parte pertencente a Maragogipe, Cayrú, Conceição de Pirajuhia, Porto da Telha e Encarnação. Cerca-o uma extensa cordilheira, que vai de Cayrú até Nazareth e que recebe varias denominações locaes. E' nella que fica o grande pico da Pedra da Lettra.

Dou parabéns á minha sorte, que me proporcionou um ensejo feliz de visitar uma das mais bellas povoações do recôncavo da Bahia. E' impossível imaginar-se pontos de vista mais seductores dos que ella tão prodigamente offerece de qualquer dos seus lados. Foi nella que o Dr. Severino Vieira offereceu um pic-nic a os Chilenos, na sua ultima visita a esse Estado. Em companhia do engenheiro Urpias tomei um bond para percorrer as salinas.

Que passeio encantador! Pelo caminho modestas choupanas de sapé, escondidas em meio de grupos de dendezeiros e elevados coqueiros, com os troncos recurvados e os cimos coroados de palmas, cujas hastes, em forma de varetas de leque, se baloiçavam nos ares, agitadas pelo vento; e por uma vasta extensão um sem numero de tanques com agua salgada, represada por barachas e apresentando em sua superfície salpicos luminosos provenientesdo sol, que dardejava sobre ella suas palhetas de fogo. Nos tanques do Porto da Telha, separados dos da Margarida pelo riacho Carro Velho, ha a maior regularidade e symetria. Dividem-se em quatro grandes secções, todas percorridas na extensão de 1.300 metros por trilhos sobre os quaes correm locomotivas.

Ao regressar de tão agradável passeio, abracei o engenheiro Urpias, a quem se deve principalmente a construcção desse monumento industrial, que ahi está para mostrar quanto pôde o esforço, a perseverança e a competência de um homem, a quem peço yenia para proclamar um benemérito em nome do povo bahiano. A Deus rendo sinceras graças pelo brinde precioso que me fez, concedendo-me mais um amigo, tão distincto pelos dotes do coração e do caracter.”

Capítulo V

Confrontando Datas

1755 - 1757

Almir de Oliveira, ainda no Capítulo V da sua obra, esclarece que: “Nos epísódios relacionados à independência da Bahia (a qual veio a ocorrer no dia 2 de julho de 1823), encontram-se algumas referências a pequeno acampamento militar existente na área onde hoje se localiza o município de Salinas da Margarida. Seu nome: Ponto da Margarida. Confirma o autor, o que pode-se inferir da palavra PONTO, neste contexto, como sendo denominado, na época, o local onde as tropas descnasavam, se estabeleciam temporariamente na marcha para os campos de batalha ou nas andanças de treinamento.

It is very difficult to decide how far changed conditions, such as of climate, food, etc., have acted in a definite manner. There is reason to believe that in the course of time the effects have been greater than can be proved by clear evidence. But we may safely conclude that the innumerable complex co-adaptations of structure, which we see throughout nature between various organic beings, cannot be attributed simply to such action. In the following cases the conditions seem to have produced some slight definite effect: E. Forbes asserts that shells at their southern limit, and when living in shallow water, are more brightly coloured than those of the same species from further north or from a greater depth; but this certainly does not always hold good. Mr. Gould believes that birds of the same species are more brightly coloured under a clear atmosphere, than when living near the coast or on islands; and Wollaston is convinced that residence near the sea affects the colours of insects. Moquin-Tandon gives a list of plants which, when growing near the sea-shore, have their leaves in some degree fleshy, though not elsewhere fleshy. These slightly varying organisms are interesting in as far as they present characters analogous to those possessed by the species which are confined to similar conditions.

When a variation is of the slightest use to any being, we cannot tell how much to attribute to the accumulative action of natural selection, and how much to the definite action of the conditions of life. Thus, it is well known to furriers that animals of the same species have thicker and better fur the further north they live; but who can tell how much of this difference may be due to the warmest-clad individuals having been favoured and preserved during many generations, and how much to the action of the severe climate? For it would appear that climate has some direct action on the hair of our domestic quadrupeds.

Instances could be given of similar varieties being produced from the same species under external conditions of life as different as can well be conceived; and, on the other hand, of dissimilar varieties being produced under apparently the same external conditions. Again, innumerable instances are known to every naturalist, of species keeping true, or not varying at all, although living under the most opposite climates. Such considerations as these incline me to lay less weight on the direct action of the surrounding conditions, than on a tendency to vary, due to causes of which we are quite ignorant...

Capítulo VI

Difficulties Of The Theory

Difficulties of the theory of descent with modification

Long before the reader has arrived at this part of my work, a crowd of difficulties will have occurred to him. Some of them are so serious that to this day I can hardly reflect on them without being in some degree staggered; but, to the best of my judgment, the greater number are only apparent, and those that are real are not, I think, fatal to the theory.

These difficulties and objections may be classed under the following heads: First, why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?

Secondly, is it possible that an animal having, for instance, the structure and habits of a bat, could have been formed by the modification of some other animal with widely different habits and structure? Can we believe that natural selection could produce, on the one hand, an organ of trifling importance, such as the tail of a giraffe, which serves as a fly-flapper, and, on the other hand, an organ so wonderful as the eye?

Thirdly, can instincts be acquired and modified through natural selection? What shall we say to the instinct which leads the bee to make cells, and which has practically anticipated the discoveries of profound mathematicians?

Fourthly, how can we account for species, when crossed, being sterile and producing sterile offspring, whereas, when varieties are crossed, their fertility is unimpaired?

The two first heads will be here discussed; some miscellaneous objections in the following chapter; Instinct and Hybridism in the two succeeding chapters.

On the Absence of Rarity of Transitional Varieties

As natural selection acts solely by the preservation of profitable modifications, each new form will tend in a fully-stocked country to take the place of, and finally to exterminate, its own less improved parent-form and other less-favoured forms with which it comes into competition. Thus extinction and natural selection go hand in hand. Hence, if we look at each species as descended from some unknown form, both the parent and all the transitional varieties will generally have been exterminated by the very process of the formation and perfection of the new form.

But, as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth? It will be more convenient to discuss this question in the chapter on the imperfection of the geological record; and I will here only state that I believe the answer mainly lies in the record being incomparably less perfect than is generally supposed. The crust of the earth is a vast museum; but the natural collections have been imperfectly made, and only at long intervals of time.

But it may be urged that when several closely allied species inhabit the same territory, we surely ought to find at the present time many transitional forms. Let us take a simple case: in travelling from north to south over a continent, we generally meet at successive intervals with closely allied or representative species, evidently filling nearly the same place in the natural economy of the land. These representative species often meet and interlock; and as the one becomes rarer and rarer, the other becomes more and more frequent, till the one replaces the other. But if we compare these species where they intermingle, they are generally as absolutely distinct from each other in every detail of structure as are specimens taken from the metropolis inhabited by each. By my theory these allied species are descended from a common parent; and during the process of modification, each has become adapted to the conditions of life of its own region, and has supplanted and exterminated its original parent-form and all the transitional varieties between its past and present states. Hence we ought not to expect at the present time to meet with numerous transitional varieties in each region, though they must have existed there, and may be embedded there in a fossil condition. But in the intermediate region, having intermediate conditions of life, why do we not now find closely-linking intermediate varieties? This difficulty for a long time quite confounded me. But I think it can be in large part explained.

In the first place we should be extremely cautious in inferring, because an area is now continuous, that it has been continuous during a long period. Geology would lead us to believe that most continents have been broken up into islands even during the later tertiary periods; and in such islands distinct species might have been separately formed without the possibility of intermediate varieties existing in the intermediate zones. By changes in the form of the land and of climate, marine areas now continuous must often have existed within recent times in a far less continuous and uniform condition than at present. But I will pass over this way of escaping from the difficulty; for I believe that many perfectly defined species have been formed on strictly continuous areas; though I do not doubt that the formerly broken condition of areas now continuous, has played an important part in the formation of new species, more especially with freely-crossing and wandering animals...

Capítulo VII

Miscellaneous Objections To The Theory Of Natural Selection

Longevity

I will devote this chapter to the consideration of various miscellaneous objections which have been advanced against my views, as some of the previous discussions may thus be made clearer; but it would be useless to discuss all of them, as many have been made by writers who have not taken the trouble to understand the subject. Thus a distinguished German naturalist has asserted that the weakest part of my theory is, that I consider all organic beings as imperfect: what I have really said is, that all are not as perfect as they might have been in relation to their conditions; and this is shown to be the case by so many native forms in many quarters of the world having yielded their places to intruding foreigners. Nor can organic beings, even if they were at any one time perfectly adapted to their conditions of life, have remained so, when their conditions changed, unless they themselves likewise changed; and no one will dispute that the physical conditions of each country, as well as the number and kinds of its inhabitants, have undergone many mutations.

A critic has lately insisted, with some parade of mathematical accuracy, that longevity is a great advantage to all species, so that he who believes in natural selection "must arrange his genealogical tree" in such a manner that all the descendants have longer lives than their progenitors! Cannot our critics conceive that a biennial plant or one of the lower animals might range into a cold climate and perish there every winter; and yet, owing to advantages gained through natural selection, survive from year to year by means of its seeds or ova? Mr. E. Ray Lankester has recently discussed this subject, and he concludes, as far as its extreme complexity allows him to form a judgment, that longevity is generally related to the standard of each species in the scale of organisation, as well as to the amount of expenditure in reproduction and in general activity. And these conditions have, it is probable, been largely determined through natural selection.

It has been argued that, as none of the animals and plants of Egypt, of which we know anything, have changed during the last three or four thousand years, so probably have none in any part of the world. But, as Mr. G.H. Lewes has remarked, this line of argument proves too much, for the ancient domestic races figured on the Egyptian monuments, or embalmed, are closely similar or even identical with those now living; yet all naturalists admit that such races have been produced through the modification of their original types. The many animals which have remained unchanged since the commencement of the glacial period, would have been an incomparably stronger case, for these have been exposed to great changes of climate and have migrated over great distances; whereas, in Egypt, during the last several thousand years, the conditions of life, as far as we know, have remained absolutely uniform. The fact of little or no modification having been effected since the glacial period, would have been of some avail against those who believe in an innate and necessary law of development, but is powerless against the doctrine of natural selection or the survival of the fittest, which implies that when variations or individual differences of a beneficial nature happen to arise, these will be preserved; but this will be effected only under certain favourable circumstances.

The celebrated palaeontologist, Bronn, at the close of his German translation of this work, asks how, on the principle of natural selection, can a variety live side by side with the parent species? If both have become fitted for slightly different habits of life or conditions, they might live together; and if we lay on one side polymorphic species, in which the variability seems to be of a peculiar nature, and all mere temporary variations, such as size, albinism, etc., the more permanent varieties are generally found, as far as I can discover, inhabiting distinct stations, such as high land or low land, dry or moist districts. Moreover, in the case of animals which wander much about and cross freely, their varieties seem to be generally confined to distinct regions...

Capítulo VIII

Instinct

Instincts comparable with habits, but different in their origin

Many instincts are so wonderful that their development will probably appear to the reader a difficulty sufficient to overthrow my whole theory. I may here premise, that I have nothing to do with the origin of the mental powers, any more than I have with that of life itself. We are concerned only with the diversities of instinct and of the other mental faculties in animals of the same class.

I will not attempt any definition of instinct. It would be easy to show that several distinct mental actions are commonly embraced by this term; but every one understands what is meant, when it is said that instinct impels the cuckoo to migrate and to lay her eggs in other birds' nests. An action, which we ourselves require experience to enable us to perform, when performed by an animal, more especially by a very young one, without experience, and when performed by many individuals in the same way, without their knowing for what purpose it is performed, is usually said to be instinctive. But I could show that none of these characters are universal. A little dose of judgment or reason, as Pierre Huber expresses it, often comes into play, even with animals low in the scale of nature.

Frederick Cuvier and several of the older metaphysicians have compared instinct with habit. This comparison gives, I think, an accurate notion of the frame of mind under which an instinctive action is performed, but not necessarily of its origin. How unconsciously many habitual actions are performed, indeed not rarely in direct opposition to our conscious will! yet they may be modified by the will or reason. Habits easily become associated with other habits, with certain periods of time and states of the body. When once acquired, they often remain constant throughout life. Several other points of resemblance between instincts and habits could be pointed out. As in repeating a well-known song, so in instincts, one action follows another by a sort of rhythm; if a person be interrupted in a song, or in repeating anything by rote, he is generally forced to go back to recover the habitual train of thought: so P. Huber found it was with a caterpillar, which makes a very complicated hammock; for if he took a caterpillar which had completed its hammock up to, say, the sixth stage of construction, and put it into a hammock completed up only to the third stage, the caterpillar simply re-performed the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of construction. If, however, a caterpillar were taken out of a hammock made up, for instance, to the third stage, and were put into one finished up to the sixth stage, so that much of its work was already done for it, far from deriving any benefit from this, it was much embarrassed, and, in order to complete its hammock, seemed forced to start from the third stage, where it had left off, and thus tried to complete the already finished work.

If we suppose any habitual action to become inherited--and it can be shown that this does sometimes happen--then the resemblance between what originally was a habit and an instinct becomes so close as not to be distinguished. If Mozart, instead of playing the pianoforte at three years old with wonderfully little practice, had played a tune with no practice at all, be might truly be said to have done so instinctively. But it would be a serious error to suppose that the greater number of instincts have been acquired by habit in one generation, and then transmitted by inheritance to succeeding generations. It can be clearly shown that the most wonderful instincts with which we are acquainted, namely, those of the hive-bee and of many ants, could not possibly have been acquired by habit.

It will be universally admitted that instincts are as important as corporeal structures for the welfare of each species, under its present conditions of life. Under changed conditions of life, it is at least possible that slight modifications of instinct might be profitable to a species; and if it can be shown that instincts do vary ever so little, then I can see no difficulty in natural selection preserving and continually accumulating variations of instinct to any extent that was profitable. It is thus, as I believe, that all the most complex and wonderful instincts have originated. As modifications of corporeal structure arise from, and are increased by, use or habit, and are diminished or lost by disuse, so I do not doubt it has been with instincts. But I believe that the effects of habit are in many cases of subordinate importance to the effects of the natural selection of what may be called spontaneous variations of instincts;--that is of variations produced by the same unknown causes which produce slight deviations of bodily structure.

No complex instinct can possibly be produced through natural selection, except by the slow and gradual accumulation of numerous, slight, yet profitable, variations. Hence, as in the case of corporeal structures, we ought to find in nature, not the actual transitional gradations by which each complex instinct has been acquired--for these could be found only in the lineal ancestors of each species--but we ought to find in the collateral lines of descent some evidence of such gradations; or we ought at least to be able to show that gradations of some kind are possible; and this we certainly can do. I have been surprised to find, making allowance for the instincts of animals having been but little observed, except in Europe and North America, and for no instinct being known among extinct species, how very generally gradations, leading to the most complex instincts, can be discovered. Changes of instinct may sometimes be facilitated by the same species having different instincts at different periods of life, or at different seasons of the year, or when placed under different circumstances, etc.; in which case either the one or the other instinct might be preserved by natural selection. And such instances of diversity of instinct in the same species can be shown to occur in nature.

Capítulo IX

Hybridism

Distinction between the sterility of first crosses and of hybrids

The view commonly entertained by naturalists is that species, when intercrossed, have been specially endowed with sterility, in order to prevent their confusion. This view certainly seems at first highly probable, for species living together could hardly have been kept distinct had they been capable of freely crossing. The subject is in many ways important for us, more especially as the sterility of species when first crossed, and that of their hybrid offspring, cannot have been acquired, as I shall show, by the preservation of successive profitable degrees of sterility. It is an incidental result of differences in the reproductive systems of the parent-species.

In treating this subject, two classes of facts, to a large extent fundamentally different, have generally been confounded; namely, the sterility of species when first crossed, and the sterility of the hybrids produced from them.

Pure species have of course their organs of reproduction in a perfect condition, yet when intercrossed they produce either few or no offspring. Hybrids, on the other hand, have their reproductive organs functionally impotent, as may be clearly seen in the state of the male element in both plants and animals; though the formative organs themselves are perfect in structure, as far as the microscope reveals. In the first case the two sexual elements which go to form the embryo are perfect; in the second case they are either not at all developed, or are imperfectly developed. This distinction is important, when the cause of the sterility, which is common to the two cases, has to be considered. The distinction probably has been slurred over, owing to the sterility in both cases being looked on as a special endowment, beyond the province of our reasoning powers.

The fertility of varieties, that is of the forms known or believed to be descended from common parents, when crossed, and likewise the fertility of their mongrel offspring, is, with reference to my theory, of equal importance with the sterility of species; for it seems to make a broad and clear distinction between varieties and species.

Degrees of Sterility

First, for the sterility of species when crossed and of their hybrid offspring. It is impossible to study the several memoirs and works of those two conscientious and admirable observers, Kolreuter and Gartner, who almost devoted their lives to this subject, without being deeply impressed with the high generality of some degree of sterility. Kolreuter makes the rule universal; but then he cuts the knot, for in ten cases in which he found two forms, considered by most authors as distinct species, quite fertile together, he unhesitatingly ranks them as varieties. Gartner, also, makes the rule equally universal; and he disputes the entire fertility of Kolreuter's ten cases. But in these and in many other cases, Gartner is obliged carefully to count the seeds, in order to show that there is any degree of sterility. He always compares the maximum number of seeds produced by two species when first crossed, and the maximum produced by their hybrid offspring, with the average number produced by both pure parent-species in a state of nature. But causes of serious error here intervene: a plant, to be hybridised, must be castrated, and, what is often more important, must be secluded in order to prevent pollen being brought to it by insects from other plants. Nearly all the plants experimented on by Gartner were potted, and were kept in a chamber in his house. That these processes are often injurious to the fertility of a plant cannot be doubted; for Gartner gives in his table about a score of cases of plants which he castrated, and artificially fertilised with their own pollen, and (excluding all cases such as the Leguminosae, in which there is an acknowledged difficulty in the manipulation) half of these twenty plants had their fertility in some degree impaired. Moreover, as Gartner repeatedly crossed some forms, such as the common red and blue pimpernels (Anagallis arvensis and coerulea), which the best botanists rank as varieties, and found them absolutely sterile, we may doubt whether many species are really so sterile, when intercrossed, as he believed.

It is certain, on the one hand, that the sterility of various species when crossed is so different in degree and graduates away so insensibly, and, on the other hand, that the fertility of pure species is so easily affected by various circumstances, that for all practical purposes it is most difficult to say where perfect fertility ends and sterility begins. I think no better evidence of this can be required than that the two most experienced observers who have ever lived, namely Kolreuter and Gartner, arrived at diametrically opposite conclusions in regard to some of the very same forms. It is also most instructive to compare--but I have not space here to enter on details--the evidence advanced by our best botanists on the question whether certain doubtful forms should be ranked as species or varieties, with the evidence from fertility adduced by different hybridisers, or by the same observer from experiments made during different years. It can thus be shown that neither sterility nor fertility affords any certain distinction between species and varieties. The evidence from this source graduates away, and is doubtful in the same degree as is the evidence derived from other constitutional and structural differences...

Capítulo X

On The Imperfection Of The Geological Record

On the absence of intermediate varieties at the present day

In the sixth chapter I enumerated the chief objections which might be justly urged against the views maintained in this volume. Most of them have now been discussed. One, namely, the distinctness of specific forms and their not being blended together by innumerable transitional links, is a very obvious difficulty. I assigned reasons why such links do not commonly occur at the present day under the circumstances apparently most favourable for their presence, namely, on an extensive and continuous area with graduated physical conditions. I endeavoured to show, that the life of each species depends in a more important manner on the presence of other already defined organic forms, than on climate, and, therefore, that the really governing conditions of life do not graduate away quite insensibly like heat or moisture. I endeavoured, also, to show that intermediate varieties, from existing in lesser numbers than the forms which they connect, will generally be beaten out and exterminated during the course of further modification and improvement. The main cause, however, of innumerable intermediate links not now occurring everywhere throughout nature depends, on the very process of natural selection, through which new varieties continually take the places of and supplant their parent-forms. But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against my theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.

In the first place, it should always be borne in mind what sort of intermediate forms must, on the theory, have formerly existed. I have found it difficult, when looking at any two species, to avoid picturing to myself forms DIRECTLY intermediate between them. But this is a wholly false view; we should always look for forms intermediate between each species and a common but unknown progenitor; and the progenitor will generally have differed in some respects from all its modified descendants. To give a simple illustration: the fantail and pouter pigeons are both descended from the rock-pigeon; if we possessed all the intermediate varieties which have ever existed, we should have an extremely close series between both and the rock-pigeon; but we should have no varieties directly intermediate between the fantail and pouter; none, for instance, combining a tail somewhat expanded with a crop somewhat enlarged, the characteristic features of these two breeds. These two breeds, moreover, have become so much modified, that, if we had no historical or indirect evidence regarding their origin, it would not have been possible to have determined from a mere comparison of their structure with that of the rock-pigeon, C. livia, whether they had descended from this species or from some other allied species, such as C. oenas.

So with natural species, if we look to forms very distinct, for instance to the horse and tapir, we have no reason to suppose that links directly intermediate between them ever existed, but between each and an unknown common parent. The common parent will have had in its whole organisation much general resemblance to the tapir and to the horse; but in some points of structure may have differed considerably from both, even perhaps more than they differ from each other. Hence, in all such cases, we should be unable to recognise the parent-form of any two or more species, even if we closely compared the structure of the parent with that of its modified descendants, unless at the same time we had a nearly perfect chain of the intermediate links.

It is just possible, by the theory, that one of two living forms might have descended from the other; for instance, a horse from a tapir; and in this case DIRECT intermediate links will have existed between them. But such a case would imply that one form had remained for a very long period unaltered, whilst its descendants had undergone a vast amount of change; and the principle of competition between organism and organism, between child and parent, will render this a very rare event; for in all cases the new and improved forms of life tend to supplant the old and unimproved forms.

By the theory of natural selection all living species have been connected with the parent-species of each genus, by differences not greater than we see between the natural and domestic varieties of the same species at the present day; and these parent-species, now generally extinct, have in their turn been similarly connected with more ancient forms; and so on backwards, always converging to the common ancestor of each great class. So that the number of intermediate and transitional links, between all living and extinct species, must have been inconceivably great. But assuredly, if this theory be true, such have lived upon the earth...

Capítulo XI

On The Geological Succession Of Organic Beings

On the slow and successive appearance of new species

Let us now see whether the several facts and laws relating to the geological succession of organic beings accord best with the common view of the immutability of species, or with that of their slow and gradual modification, through variation and natural selection.

New species have appeared very slowly, one after another, both on the land and in the waters. Lyell has shown that it is hardly possible to resist the evidence on this head in the case of the several tertiary stages; and every year tends to fill up the blanks between the stages, and to make the proportion between the lost and existing forms more gradual. In some of the most recent beds, though undoubtedly of high antiquity if measured by years, only one or two species are extinct, and only one or two are new, having appeared there for the first time, either locally, or, as far as we know, on the face of the earth. The secondary formations are more broken; but, as Bronn has remarked, neither the appearance nor disappearance of the many species embedded in each formation has been simultaneous.

Species belonging to different genera and classes have not changed at the same rate, or in the same degree. In the older tertiary beds a few living shells may still be found in the midst of a multitude of extinct forms. Falconer has given a striking instance of a similar fact, for an existing crocodile is associated with many lost mammals and reptiles in the sub-Himalayan deposits. The Silurian Lingula differs but little from the living species of this genus; whereas most of the other Silurian Molluscs and all the Crustaceans have changed greatly. The productions of the land seem to have changed at a quicker rate than those of the sea, of which a striking instance has been observed in Switzerland. There is some reason to believe that organisms high in the scale, change more quickly than those that are low: though there are exceptions to this rule. The amount of organic change, as Pictet has remarked, is not the same in each successive so-called formation. Yet if we compare any but the most closely related formations, all the species will be found to have undergone some change. When a species has once disappeared from the face of the earth, we have no reason to believe that the same identical form ever reappears. The strongest apparent exception to this latter rule is that of the so-called "colonies" of M. Barrande, which intrude for a period in the midst of an older formation, and then allow the pre-existing fauna to reappear; but Lyell's explanation, namely, that it is a case of temporary migration from a distinct geographical province, seems satisfactory.

These several facts accord well with our theory, which includes no fixed law of development, causing all the inhabitants of an area to change abruptly, or simultaneously, or to an equal degree. The process of modification must be slow, and will generally affect only a few species at the same time; for the variability of each species is independent of that of all others. Whether such variations or individual differences as may arise will be accumulated through natural selection in a greater or less degree, thus causing a greater or less amount of permanent modification, will depend on many complex contingencies--on the variations being of a beneficial nature, on the freedom of intercrossing, on the slowly changing physical conditions of the country, on the immigration of new colonists, and on the nature of the other inhabitants with which the varying species come into competition. Hence it is by no means surprising that one species should retain the same identical form much longer than others; or, if changing, should change in a less degree. We find similar relations between the existing inhabitants of distinct countries; for instance, the land-shells and coleopterous insects of Madeira have come to differ considerably from their nearest allies on the continent of Europe, whereas the marine shells and birds have remained unaltered. We can perhaps understand the apparently quicker rate of change in terrestrial and in more highly organised productions compared with marine and lower productions, by the more complex relations of the higher beings to their organic and inorganic conditions of life, as explained in a former chapter. When many of the inhabitants of any area have become modified and improved, we can understand, on the principle of competition, and from the all-important relations of organism to organism in the struggle for life, that any form which did not become in some degree modified and improved, would be liable to extermination. Hence, we see why all the species in the same region do at last, if we look to long enough intervals of time, become modified; for otherwise they would become extinct.

In members of the same class the average amount of change, during long and equal periods of time, may, perhaps, be nearly the same; but as the accumulation of enduring formations, rich in fossils, depends on great masses of sediment being deposited on subsiding areas, our formations have been almost necessarily accumulated at wide and irregularly intermittent intervals of time; consequently the amount of organic change exhibited by the fossils embedded in consecutive formations is not equal. Each formation, on this view, does not mark a new and complete act of creation, but only an occasional scene, taken almost at hazard, in an ever slowly changing drama.

We can clearly understand why a species when once lost should never reappear, even if the very same conditions of life, organic and inorganic, should recur. For though the offspring of one species might be adapted (and no doubt this has occurred in innumerable instances) to fill the place of another species in the economy of nature, and thus supplant it; yet the two forms--the old and the new--would not be identically the same; for both would almost certainly inherit different characters from their distinct progenitors; and organisms already differing would vary in a different manner. For instance, it is possible, if all our fantail-pigeons were destroyed, that fanciers might make a new breed hardly distinguishable from the present breed; but if the parent rock-pigeon were likewise destroyed, and under nature we have every reason to believe that parent forms are generally supplanted and exterminated by their improved offspring, it is incredible that a fantail, identical with the existing breed, could be raised from any other species of pigeon, or even from any other well established race of the domestic pigeon, for the successive variations would almost certainly be in some degree different, and the newly-formed variety would probably inherit from its progenitor some characteristic differences...

Capítulo XII

Geographical Distribution

Present distribution cannot be accounted for by differences in physical conditions

In considering the distribution of organic beings over the face of the globe, the first great fact which strikes us is, that neither the similarity nor the dissimilarity of the inhabitants of various regions can be wholly accounted for by climatal and other physical conditions. Of late, almost every author who has studied the subject has come to this conclusion. The case of America alone would almost suffice to prove its truth; for if we exclude the arctic and northern temperate parts, all authors agree that one of the most fundamental divisions in geographical distribution is that between the New and Old Worlds; yet if we travel over the vast American continent, from the central parts of the United States to its extreme southern point, we meet with the most diversified conditions; humid districts, arid deserts, lofty mountains, grassy plains, forests, marshes, lakes and great rivers, under almost every temperature. There is hardly a climate or condition in the Old World which cannot be paralleled in the New--at least so closely as the same species generally require. No doubt small areas can be pointed out in the Old World hotter than any in the New World; but these are not inhabited by a fauna different from that of the surrounding districts; for it is rare to find a group of organisms confined to a small area, of which the conditions are peculiar in only a slight degree. Notwithstanding this general parallelism in the conditions of Old and New Worlds, how widely different are their living productions!

In the southern hemisphere, if we compare large tracts of land in Australia, South Africa, and western South America, between latitudes 25 and 35 degrees, we shall find parts extremely similar in all their conditions, yet it would not be possible to point out three faunas and floras more utterly dissimilar. Or, again, we may compare the productions of South America south of latitude 35 degrees with those north of 25 degrees, which consequently are separated by a space of ten degrees of latitude, and are exposed to considerably different conditions; yet they are incomparably more closely related to each other than they are to the productions of Australia or Africa under nearly the same climate. Analogous facts could be given with respect to the inhabitants of the sea.

A second great fact which strikes us in our general review is, that barriers of any kind, or obstacles to free migration, are related in a close and important manner to the differences between the productions of various regions. We see this in the great difference in nearly all the terrestrial productions of the New and Old Worlds, excepting in the northern parts, where the land almost joins, and where, under a slightly different climate, there might have been free migration for the northern temperate forms, as there now is for the strictly arctic productions. We see the same fact in the great difference between the inhabitants of Australia, Africa, and South America under the same latitude; for these countries are almost as much isolated from each other as is possible. On each continent, also, we see the same fact; for on the opposite sides of lofty and continuous mountain-ranges, and of great deserts and even of large rivers, we find different productions; though as mountain chains, deserts, etc., are not as impassable, or likely to have endured so long, as the oceans separating continents, the differences are very inferior in degree to those characteristic of distinct continents.

Turning to the sea, we find the same law. The marine inhabitants of the eastern and western shores of South America are very distinct, with extremely few shells, crustacea, or echinodermata in common; but Dr. Gunther has recently shown that about thirty per cent of the fishes are the same on the opposite sides of the isthmus of Panama; and this fact has led naturalists to believe that the isthmus was formerly open. Westward of the shores of America, a wide space of open ocean extends, with not an island as a halting-place for emigrants; here we have a barrier of another kind, and as soon as this is passed we meet in the eastern islands of the Pacific with another and totally distinct fauna. So that three marine faunas range northward and southward in parallel lines not far from each other, under corresponding climate; but from being separated from each other by impassable barriers, either of land or open sea, they are almost wholly distinct. On the other hand, proceeding still further westward from the eastern islands of the tropical parts of the Pacific, we encounter no impassable barriers, and we have innumerable islands as halting-places, or continuous coasts, until, after travelling over a hemisphere, we come to the shores of Africa; and over this vast space we meet with no well-defined and distinct marine faunas. Although so few marine animals are common to the above-named three approximate faunas of Eastern and Western America and the eastern Pacific islands, yet many fishes range from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean, and many shells are common to the eastern islands of the Pacific and the eastern shores of Africa on almost exactly opposite meridians of longitude.

A third great fact, partly included in the foregoing statement, is the affinity of the productions of the same continent or of the same sea, though the species themselves are distinct at different points and stations. It is a law of the widest generality, and every continent offers innumerable instances. Nevertheless, the naturalist, in travelling, for instance, from north to south, never fails to be struck by the manner in which successive groups of beings, specifically distinct, though nearly related, replace each other. He hears from closely allied, yet distinct kinds of birds, notes nearly similar, and sees their nests similarly constructed, but not quite alike, with eggs coloured in nearly the same manner. The plains near the Straits of Magellan are inhabited by one species of Rhea (American ostrich), and northward the plains of La Plata by another species of the same genus; and not by a true ostrich or emu, like those inhabiting Africa and Australia under the same latitude. On these same plains of La Plata we see the agouti and bizcacha, animals having nearly the same habits as our hares and rabbits, and belonging to the same order of Rodents, but they plainly display an American type of structure. We ascend the lofty peaks of the Cordillera, and we find an alpine species of bizcacha; we look to the waters, and we do not find the beaver or muskrat, but the coypu and capybara, rodents of the South American type. Innumerable other instances could be given. If we look to the islands off the American shore, however much they may differ in geological structure, the inhabitants are essentially American, though they may be all peculiar species. We may look back to past ages, as shown in the last chapter, and we find American types then prevailing on the American continent and in the American seas. We see in these facts some deep organic bond, throughout space and time, over the same areas of land and water, independently of physical conditions. The naturalist must be dull who is not led to inquire what this bond is...

Capítulo XIII

Geographical Distribution - Continued

Present distribution cannot be accounted for by differences in physical conditions

In considering the distribution of organic beings over the face of the globe, the first great fact which strikes us is, that neither the similarity nor the dissimilarity of the inhabitants of various regions can be wholly accounted for by climatal and other physical conditions. Of late, almost every author who has studied the subject has come to this conclusion. The case of America alone would almost suffice to prove its truth; for if we exclude the arctic and northern temperate parts, all authors agree that one of the most fundamental divisions in geographical distribution is that between the New and Old Worlds; yet if we travel over the vast American continent, from the central parts of the United States to its extreme southern point, we meet with the most diversified conditions; humid districts, arid deserts, lofty mountains, grassy plains, forests, marshes, lakes and great rivers, under almost every temperature. There is hardly a climate or condition in the Old World which cannot be paralleled in the New--at least so closely as the same species generally require. No doubt small areas can be pointed out in the Old World hotter than any in the New World; but these are not inhabited by a fauna different from that of the surrounding districts; for it is rare to find a group of organisms confined to a small area, of which the conditions are peculiar in only a slight degree. Notwithstanding this general parallelism in the conditions of Old and New Worlds, how widely different are their living productions!

In the southern hemisphere, if we compare large tracts of land in Australia, South Africa, and western South America, between latitudes 25 and 35 degrees, we shall find parts extremely similar in all their conditions, yet it would not be possible to point out three faunas and floras more utterly dissimilar. Or, again, we may compare the productions of South America south of latitude 35 degrees with those north of 25 degrees, which consequently are separated by a space of ten degrees of latitude, and are exposed to considerably different conditions; yet they are incomparably more closely related to each other than they are to the productions of Australia or Africa under nearly the same climate. Analogous facts could be given with respect to the inhabitants of the sea.

A second great fact which strikes us in our general review is, that barriers of any kind, or obstacles to free migration, are related in a close and important manner to the differences between the productions of various regions. We see this in the great difference in nearly all the terrestrial productions of the New and Old Worlds, excepting in the northern parts, where the land almost joins, and where, under a slightly different climate, there might have been free migration for the northern temperate forms, as there now is for the strictly arctic productions. We see the same fact in the great difference between the inhabitants of Australia, Africa, and South America under the same latitude; for these countries are almost as much isolated from each other as is possible. On each continent, also, we see the same fact; for on the opposite sides of lofty and continuous mountain-ranges, and of great deserts and even of large rivers, we find different productions; though as mountain chains, deserts, etc., are not as impassable, or likely to have endured so long, as the oceans separating continents, the differences are very inferior in degree to those characteristic of distinct continents.

Turning to the sea, we find the same law. The marine inhabitants of the eastern and western shores of South America are very distinct, with extremely few shells, crustacea, or echinodermata in common; but Dr. Gunther has recently shown that about thirty per cent of the fishes are the same on the opposite sides of the isthmus of Panama; and this fact has led naturalists to believe that the isthmus was formerly open. Westward of the shores of America, a wide space of open ocean extends, with not an island as a halting-place for emigrants; here we have a barrier of another kind, and as soon as this is passed we meet in the eastern islands of the Pacific with another and totally distinct fauna. So that three marine faunas range northward and southward in parallel lines not far from each other, under corresponding climate; but from being separated from each other by impassable barriers, either of land or open sea, they are almost wholly distinct. On the other hand, proceeding still further westward from the eastern islands of the tropical parts of the Pacific, we encounter no impassable barriers, and we have innumerable islands as halting-places, or continuous coasts, until, after travelling over a hemisphere, we come to the shores of Africa; and over this vast space we meet with no well-defined and distinct marine faunas. Although so few marine animals are common to the above-named three approximate faunas of Eastern and Western America and the eastern Pacific islands, yet many fishes range from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean, and many shells are common to the eastern islands of the Pacific and the eastern shores of Africa on almost exactly opposite meridians of longitude.

A third great fact, partly included in the foregoing statement, is the affinity of the productions of the same continent or of the same sea, though the species themselves are distinct at different points and stations. It is a law of the widest generality, and every continent offers innumerable instances. Nevertheless, the naturalist, in travelling, for instance, from north to south, never fails to be struck by the manner in which successive groups of beings, specifically distinct, though nearly related, replace each other. He hears from closely allied, yet distinct kinds of birds, notes nearly similar, and sees their nests similarly constructed, but not quite alike, with eggs coloured in nearly the same manner. The plains near the Straits of Magellan are inhabited by one species of Rhea (American ostrich), and northward the plains of La Plata by another species of the same genus; and not by a true ostrich or emu, like those inhabiting Africa and Australia under the same latitude. On these same plains of La Plata we see the agouti and bizcacha, animals having nearly the same habits as our hares and rabbits, and belonging to the same order of Rodents, but they plainly display an American type of structure. We ascend the lofty peaks of the Cordillera, and we find an alpine species of bizcacha; we look to the waters, and we do not find the beaver or muskrat, but the coypu and capybara, rodents of the South American type. Innumerable other instances could be given. If we look to the islands off the American shore, however much they may differ in geological structure, the inhabitants are essentially American, though they may be all peculiar species. We may look back to past ages, as shown in the last chapter, and we find American types then prevailing on the American continent and in the American seas. We see in these facts some deep organic bond, throughout space and time, over the same areas of land and water, independently of physical conditions. The naturalist must be dull who is not led to inquire what this bond is.

The bond is simply inheritance, that cause which alone, as far as we positively know, produces organisms quite like each other, or, as we see in the case of varieties, nearly alike. The dissimilarity of the inhabitants of different regions may be attributed to modification through variation and natural selection, and probably in a subordinate degree to the definite influence of different physical conditions. The degrees of dissimilarity will depend on the migration of the more dominant forms of life from one region into another having been more or less effectually prevented, at periods more or less remote--on the nature and number of the former immigrants--and on the action of the inhabitants on each other in leading to the preservation of different modifications; the relation of organism to organism in the struggle for life being, as I have already often remarked, the most important of all relations. Thus the high importance of barriers comes into play by checking migration; as does time for the slow process of modification through natural selection. Widely-ranging species, abounding in individuals, which have already triumphed over many competitors in their own widely-extended homes, will have the best chance of seizing on new places, when they spread out into new countries. In their new homes they will be exposed to new conditions, and will frequently undergo further modification and improvement; and thus they will become still further victorious, and will produce groups of modified descendants. On this principle of inheritance with modification we can understand how it is that sections of genera, whole genera, and even families, are confined to the same areas, as is so commonly and notoriously the case...

Capítulo XIV

Mutual Affinities Of Organic Beings

Classification, groups subordinate to groups

From the most remote period in the history of the world organic beings have been found to resemble each other in descending degrees, so that they can be classed in groups under groups. This classification is not arbitrary like the grouping of the stars in constellations. The existence of groups would have been of simple significance, if one group had been exclusively fitted to inhabit the land, and another the water; one to feed on flesh, another on vegetable matter, and so on; but the case is widely different, for it is notorious how commonly members of even the same subgroup have different habits. In the second and fourth chapters, on Variation and on Natural Selection, I have attempted to show that within each country it is the widely ranging, the much diffused and common, that is the dominant species, belonging to the larger genera in each class, which vary most. The varieties, or incipient species, thus produced, ultimately become converted into new and distinct species; and these, on the principle of inheritance, tend to produce other new and dominant species. Consequently the groups which are now large, and which generally include many dominant species, tend to go on increasing in size. I further attempted to show that from the varying descendants of each species trying to occupy as many and as different places as possible in the economy of nature, they constantly tend to diverge in character. This latter conclusion is supported by observing the great diversity of forms, which, in any small area, come into the closest competition, and by certain facts in naturalisation.

I attempted also to show that there is a steady tendency in the forms which are increasing in number and diverging in character, to supplant and exterminate the preceding, less divergent and less improved forms. I request the reader to turn to the diagram illustrating the action, as formerly explained, of these several principles; and he will see that the inevitable result is, that the modified descendants proceeding from one progenitor become broken up into groups subordinate to groups. In the diagram each letter on the uppermost line may represent a genus including several species; and the whole of the genera along this upper line form together one class, for all are descended from one ancient parent, and, consequently, have inherited something in common. But the three genera on the left hand have, on this same principle, much in common, and form a subfamily, distinct from that containing the next two genera on the right hand, which diverged from a common parent at the fifth stage of descent. These five genera have also much in common, though less than when grouped in subfamilies; and they form a family distinct from that containing the three genera still further to the right hand, which diverged at an earlier period. And all these genera, descended from (A), form an order distinct from the genera descended from (I). So that we here have many species descended from a single progenitor grouped into genera; and the genera into subfamilies, families and orders, all under one great class. The grand fact of the natural subordination of organic beings in groups under groups, which, from its familiarity, does not always sufficiently strike us, is in my judgment thus explained. No doubt organic beings, like all other objects, can be classed in many ways, either artificially by single characters, or more naturally by a number of characters. We know, for instance, that minerals and the elemental substances can be thus arranged. In this case there is of course no relation to genealogical succession, and no cause can at present be assigned for their falling into groups. But with organic beings the case is different, and the view above given accords with their natural arrangement in group under group; and no other explanation has ever been attempted.

Naturalists, as we have seen, try to arrange the species, genera and families in each class, on what is called the Natural System. But what is meant by this system? Some authors look at it merely as a scheme for arranging together those living objects which are most alike, and for separating those which are most unlike; or as an artificial method of enunciating, as briefly as possible, general propositions--that is, by one sentence to give the characters common, for instance, to all mammals, by another those common to all carnivora, by another those common to the dog-genus, and then, by adding a single sentence, a full description is given of each kind of dog. The ingenuity and utility of this system are indisputable. But many naturalists think that something more is meant by the Natural System; they believe that it reveals the plan of the Creator; but unless it be specified whether order in time or space, or both, or what else is meant by the plan of the Creator, it seems to me that nothing is thus added to our knowledge. Expressions such as that famous one by Linnaeus, which we often meet with in a more or less concealed form, namely, that the characters do not make the genus, but that the genus gives the characters, seem to imply that some deeper bond is included in our classifications than mere resemblance. I believe that this is the case, and that community of descent--the one known cause of close similarity in organic beings--is the bond, which, though observed by various degrees of modification, is partially revealed to us by our classifications.

Let us now consider the rules followed in classification, and the difficulties which are encountered on the view that classification either gives some unknown plan of creation, or is simply a scheme for enunciating general propositions and of placing together the forms most like each other. It might have been thought (and was in ancient times thought) that those parts of the structure which determined the habits of life, and the general place of each being in the economy of nature, would be of very high importance in classification. Nothing can be more false. No one regards the external similarity of a mouse to a shrew, of a dugong to a whale, of a whale to a fish, as of any importance. These resemblances, though so intimately connected with the whole life of the being, are ranked as merely "adaptive or analogical characters;" but to the consideration of these resemblances we shall recur. It may even be given as a general rule, that the less any part of the organisation is concerned with special habits, the more important it becomes for classification. As an instance: Owen, in speaking of the dugong, says, "The generative organs, being those which are most remotely related to the habits and food of an animal, I have always regarded as affording very clear indications of its true affinities. We are least likely in the modifications of these organs to mistake a merely adaptive for an essential character." With plants how remarkable it is that the organs of vegetation, on which their nutrition and life depend, are of little signification; whereas the organs of reproduction, with their product the seed and embryo, are of paramount importance! So again, in formerly discussing certain morphological characters which are not functionally important, we have seen that they are often of the highest service in classification. This depends on their constancy throughout many allied groups; and their constancy chiefly depends on any slight deviations not having been preserved and accumulated by natural selection, which acts only on serviceable characters...

Capítulo XV

Recapitulation And Conclusion

Recapitulation of the objections to the theory of Natural Selection

As this whole volume is one long argument, it may be convenient to the reader to have the leading facts and inferences briefly recapitulated.

That many and serious objections may be advanced against the theory of descent with modification through variation and natural selection, I do not deny. I have endeavoured to give to them their full force. Nothing at first can appear more difficult to believe than that the more complex organs and instincts have been perfected, not by means superior to, though analogous with, human reason, but by the accumulation of innumerable slight variations, each good for the individual possessor. Nevertheless, this difficulty, though appearing to our imagination insuperably great, cannot be considered real if we admit the following propositions, namely, that all parts of the organisation and instincts offer, at least individual differences--that there is a struggle for existence leading to the preservation of profitable deviations of structure or instinct--and, lastly, that gradations in the state of perfection of each organ may have existed, each good of its kind. The truth of these propositions cannot, I think, be disputed.

It is, no doubt, extremely difficult even to conjecture by what gradations many structures have been perfected, more especially among broken and failing groups of organic beings, which have suffered much extinction; but we see so many strange gradations in nature, that we ought to be extremely cautious in saying that any organ or instinct, or any whole structure, could not have arrived at its present state by many graduated steps. There are, it must be admitted, cases of special difficulty opposed to the theory of natural selection; and one of the most curious of these is the existence in the same community of two or three defined castes of workers or sterile female ants; but I have attempted to show how these difficulties can be mastered.

With respect to the almost universal sterility of species when first crossed, which forms so remarkable a contrast with the almost universal fertility of varieties when crossed, I must refer the reader to the recapitulation of the facts given at the end of the ninth chapter, which seem to me conclusively to show that this sterility is no more a special endowment than is the incapacity of two distinct kinds of trees to be grafted together; but that it is incidental on differences confined to the reproductive systems of the intercrossed species. We see the truth of this conclusion in the vast difference in the results of crossing the same two species reciprocally--that is, when one species is first used as the father and then as the mother. Analogy from the consideration of dimorphic and trimorphic plants clearly leads to the same conclusion, for when the forms are illegitimately united, they yield few or no seed, and their offspring are more or less sterile; and these forms belong to the same undoubted species, and differ from each other in no respect except in their reproductive organs and functions.

Although the fertility of varieties when intercrossed, and of their mongrel offspring, has been asserted by so many authors to be universal, this cannot be considered as quite correct after the facts given on the high authority of Gartner and Kolreuter. Most of the varieties which have been experimented on have been produced under domestication; and as domestication (I do not mean mere confinement) almost certainly tends to eliminate that sterility which, judging from analogy, would have affected the parent-species if intercrossed, we ought not to expect that domestication would likewise induce sterility in their modified descendants when crossed. This elimination of sterility apparently follows from the same cause which allows our domestic animals to breed freely under diversified circumstances; and this again apparently follows from their having been gradually accustomed to frequent changes in their conditions of life.

A double and parallel series of facts seems to throw much light on the sterility of species, when first crossed, and of their hybrid offspring. On the one side, there is good reason to believe that slight changes in the conditions of life give vigour and fertility to all organic beings. We know also that a cross between the distinct individuals of the same variety, and between distinct varieties, increases the number of their offspring, and certainly gives to them increased size and vigour. This is chiefly owing to the forms which are crossed having been exposed to somewhat different conditions of life; for I have ascertained by a labourious series of experiments that if all the individuals of the same variety be subjected during several generations to the same conditions, the good derived from crossing is often much diminished or wholly disappears. This is one side of the case. On the other side, we know that species which have long been exposed to nearly uniform conditions, when they are subjected under confinement to new and greatly changed conditions, either perish, or if they survive, are rendered sterile, though retaining perfect health. This does not occur, or only in a very slight degree, with our domesticated productions, which have long been exposed to fluctuating conditions. Hence when we find that hybrids produced by a cross between two distinct species are few in number, owing to their perishing soon after conception or at a very early age, or if surviving that they are rendered more or less sterile, it seems highly probable that this result is due to their having been in fact subjected to a great change in their conditions of life, from being compounded of two distinct organisations. He who will explain in a definite manner why, for instance, an elephant or a fox will not breed under confinement in its native country, whilst the domestic pig or dog will breed freely under the most diversified conditions, will at the same time be able to give a definite answer to the question why two distinct species, when crossed, as well as their hybrid offspring, are generally rendered more or less sterile, while two domesticated varieties when crossed and their mongrel offspring are perfectly fertile.

Turning to geographical distribution, the difficulties encountered on the theory of descent with modification are serious enough. All the individuals of the same species, and all the species of the same genus, or even higher group, are descended from common parents; and therefore, in however distant and isolated parts of the world they may now be found, they must in the course of successive generations have travelled from some one point to all the others. We are often wholly unable even to conjecture how this could have been effected. Yet, as we have reason to believe that some species have retained the same specific form for very long periods of time, immensely long as measured by years, too much stress ought not to be laid on the occasional wide diffusion of the same species; for during very long periods there will always have been a good chance for wide migration by many means. A broken or interrupted range may often be accounted for by the extinction of the species in the intermediate regions. It cannot be denied that we are as yet very ignorant as to the full extent of the various climatical and geographical changes which have affected the earth during modern periods; and such changes will often have facilitated migration. As an example, I have attempted to show how potent has been the influence of the Glacial period on the distribution of the same and of allied species throughout the world. We are as yet profoundly ignorant of the many occasional means of transport. With respect to distinct species of the same genus, inhabiting distant and isolated regions, as the process of modification has necessarily been slow, all the means of migration will have been possible during a very long period; and consequently the difficulty of the wide diffusion of the species of the same genus is in some degree lessened.

As according to the theory of natural selection an interminable number of intermediate forms must have existed, linking together all the species in each group by gradations as fine as our existing varieties, it may be asked, Why do we not see these linking forms all around us? Why are not all organic beings blended together in an inextricable chaos? With respect to existing forms, we should remember that we have no right to expect (excepting in rare cases) to discover DIRECTLY connecting links between them, but only between each and some extinct and supplanted form. Even on a wide area, which has during a long period remained continuous, and of which the climatic and other conditions of life change insensibly in proceeding from a district occupied by one species into another district occupied by a closely allied species, we have no just right to expect often to find intermediate varieties in the intermediate zones. For we have reason to believe that only a few species of a genus ever undergo change; the other species becoming utterly extinct and leaving no modified progeny. Of the species which do change, only a few within the same country change at the same time; and all modifications are slowly effected. I have also shown that the intermediate varieties which probably at first existed in the intermediate zones, would be liable to be supplanted by the allied forms on either hand; for the latter, from existing in greater numbers, would generally be modified and improved at a quicker rate than the intermediate varieties, which existed in lesser numbers; so that the intermediate varieties would, in the long run, be supplanted and exterminated.

On this doctrine of the extermination of an infinitude of connecting links, between the living and extinct inhabitants of the world, and at each successive period between the extinct and still older species, why is not every geological formation charged with such links? Why does not every collection of fossil remains afford plain evidence of the gradation and mutation of the forms of life? Although geological research has undoubtedly revealed the former existence of many links, bringing numerous forms of life much closer together, it does not yield the infinitely many fine gradations between past and present species required on the theory, and this is the most obvious of the many objections which may be urged against it. Why, again, do whole groups of allied species appear, though this appearance is often false, to have come in suddenly on the successive geological stages? Although we now know that organic beings appeared on this globe, at a period incalculably remote, long before the lowest bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, why do we not find beneath this system great piles of strata stored with the remains of the progenitors of the Cambrian fossils? For on the theory, such strata must somewhere have been deposited at these ancient and utterly unknown epochs of the world's history...