Principles of Geology Part 56

Captain Beechey, in his voyage to the Pacific, fell in with some natives of the Coral Islands, who had in a similar manner been carried to a great distance from their native country. They had embarked, to the number of 150 souls, in three double canoes, from Anaa, or Chain Island, situated about three hundred miles to the eastward of Otaheite. They were overtaken by the monsoon, which dispersed the canoes; and after driving them about the ocean, left them becalmed, so that a great number of persons perished. Two of the canoes were never heard of; but the other was drifted from one uninhabited island to another, at each of which the voyagers obtained a few provisions; and at length, after having wandered for a distance of 600 miles, they were found and carried to their home in the Blossom.[945]

Mr. Crawfurd informs me that there are several well-authenticated accounts of canoes having been drifted from Sumatra to Madagascar, and by such causes a portion of the Malayan language, with some useful plants, have been transferred to that island, which is princ.i.p.ally peopled by negroes.

The s.p.a.ce traversed in some of these instances was so great, that similar accidents might suffice to transport canoes from various parts of Africa to the sh.o.r.es of South America, or from Spain to the Azores, and thence to North America; so that man, even in a rude state of society, is liable to be scattered involuntarily by the winds and waves over the globe, in a manner singularly a.n.a.logous to that in which many plants and animals are diffused. We ought not, then, to wonder, that during the ages required for some tribes of the human race to attain that advanced stage of civilization which empowers the navigator to cross the ocean in all directions with security, the whole earth should have become the abode of rude tribes of hunters and fishers. Were the whole of mankind now cut off, with the exception of one family, inhabiting the old or new continent, or Australia, or even some coral islet of the Pacific, we might expect their descendants, though they should never become more enlightened than the South Sea Islanders or the Esquimaux, to spread in the course of ages over the whole earth, diffused partly by the tendency of population to increase, in a limited district, beyond the means of subsistence, and partly by the accidental drifting of canoes by tides and currents to distant sh.o.r.es.

_Involuntary Influence of Man in diffusing Animals and Plants._

Many of the general remarks which have been made respecting the influence of man in spreading or in checking the diffusion of plants apply equally to his relations with the animal kingdom. On a future occasion I shall be led to speak of the instrumentality of our species in naturalizing useful animals and plants in new regions, when explaining my views of the effects which the spreading and increase of certain species exert in the extirpation of others. At present I shall confine myself to a few remarks on the involuntary aid which man lends to the dissemination of species.

In the mammiferous cla.s.s our influence is chiefly displayed in increasing the number of quadrupeds which are serviceable to us, and in exterminating or reducing the number of those which are noxious.

Sometimes, however, we unintentionally promote the multiplication of inimical species, as when we introduced the rat, which was not indigenous in the new world, into all parts of America. They have been conveyed over in ships, and now infest a great mult.i.tude of islands and parts of that continent. In like manner the Norway rat (_Mus dec.u.ma.n.u.s_) has been imported into England, where it plunders our property in ships and houses.

Among birds, the house sparrow may be cited as a species known to have extended its range with the tillage of the soil. During the last century it has spread gradually over Asiatic Russia towards the north and east, always following the progress of cultivation. It made its first appearance on the Irtisch in Tobolsk, soon after the Russians had ploughed the land. It came in 1735 up the Obi to Beresow, and four years after to Naryn, about fifteen degrees of longitude farther east. In 1710, it had been seen in the higher parts of the coast of the Lena, in the government of Irkutzk. In all these places it is now common, but is not yet found in the uncultivated regions of Kamtschatka.[946]

The great viper (_Fer de lance_), a species no less venomous than the rattlesnake, which now ravages Martinique and St. Lucia, was accidentally introduced by man, and exists in no other part of the West Indies.

Many parasitic insects which attack our persons, and some of which are supposed to be peculiar to our species, have been carried into all parts of the earth, and have as high a claim as man to a _universal_ geographical distribution.

A great variety of insects have been transported in ships from one country to another, especially in warmer lat.i.tudes. The European house-fly has been introduced in this way into all the South Sea Islands. Notwithstanding the coldness of our climate in England we have been unable to prevent the c.o.c.kroach (_Blatta orientalis_) from entering and diffusing itself in our ovens and kneading troughs, and availing itself of the artificial warmth which we afford. It is well known also, that beetles, and many other kinds of ligniperdous insects, have been introduced into Great Britain in timber; especially several North American species. "The commercial relations," says Malte-Brun[947], "between France and India have transported from the latter country the aphis, which destroys the apple tree, and two sorts of Neuroptera, the _Lucifuga_ and _Flavicola_, mostly confined to Provence and the neighbourhood of Bourdeaux, where they devour the timber in the houses and naval a.r.s.enals."

Among mollusks we may mention the _Teredo navalis_, which is a native of equatorial seas, but which, by adhering to the bottom of ships, was transported to Holland, where it has been most destructive to vessels and piles. The same species has also become naturalized in England, and other countries enjoying an extensive commerce. _Bulimus undatus_, a land species of considerable size, native of Jamaica and other West Indian islands, has been imported, adhering to tropical timber, into Liverpool; and, as I learn from Mr. Broderip, is now naturalized in the woods near that town.

In all these and innumerable other instances we may regard the involuntary agency of man as strictly a.n.a.logous to that of the inferior animals. Like them, we unconsciously contribute to extend or limit the geographical range and numbers of certain species, in obedience to general rules in the economy of nature, which are for the most part beyond our control.

CHAPTER XL.

THEORIES RESPECTING THE ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION OF SPECIES.

Proposal of an hypothesis on this subject--Supposed centres or foci of creation--Why distinct provinces of animals and plants have not become more blended together--Brocchi's speculations on the loss of species--Stations of plants and animals--Causes on which they depend--Stations of plants how affected by animals--Equilibrium in the number of species how preserved--Peculiar efficacy of insects in this task--Rapidity with which certain insects multiply or decrease in numbers--Effect of omnivorous animals in preserving the equilibrium of species--Reciprocal influence of aquatic and terrestrial species on each other.

_Theory of Linnaeus._--It would be superfluous to examine the various attempts which were made to explain the phenomena of the distribution of species alluded to in the preceding chapters, in the infancy of the sciences of botany, zoology, and physical geography. The theories or rather conjectures then indulged now stand refuted by a simple statement of facts; and if Linnaeus were living he would be the first to renounce the notions which he promulgated. For he imagined the habitable world to have been for a certain time limited to one small tract, the only portion of the earth's surface that was as yet laid bare by the subsidence of the primaeval ocean. In this fertile spot he supposed the originals of all the species of plants which exist on this globe to have been congregated together with the first ancestors of all animals and of the human race. "In qua commode habitaverint animalia omnia, et vegetabilia laete germinaverint." In order to accommodate the various habitudes of so many creatures, and to provide a diversity of climate suited to their several natures, the tract in which the creation took place was supposed to have been situated in some warm region of the earth, but to have contained a lofty mountain range, on the heights and in the declivities of which were to be found all temperatures and every climate, from that of the torrid to that of the frozen zone.[948]

That there never was a universal ocean since the planet was inhabited, or, rather, since the oldest groups of strata yet known to contain organic remains were formed, is proved by the presence of terrestrial plants or by indications of sh.o.r.es in all the older formations; and if this conclusion was not established, yet no geologist could deny that, since the first small portion of the earth was laid dry, there have been many entire changes in the species of plants and animals inhabiting the land.

But, without dwelling on the above and other refuted theories, let us inquire whether some hypothesis cannot be subst.i.tuted as simple as that of Linnaeus, to which the phenomena now ascertained in regard to the distribution both of aquatic and terrestrial species may be referred.

The following may, perhaps, be reconcileable with known facts:--Each species may have had its origin in a single pair, or individual, where an individual was sufficient, and species may have been created in succession at such times and in such places as to enable them to multiply and endure for an appointed period, and occupy an appointed s.p.a.ce on the globe.

In order to explain this theory, let us suppose every living thing to be destroyed in the western hemisphere, both on the land and in the ocean, and permission to be given to man to people this great desert, by transporting into it animals and plants from the eastern hemisphere, a strict prohibition being enforced against introducing two original stocks of the same species.

Now it is easy to show that the result of such a mode of colonizing would correspond exactly, so far as regards the grouping of animals and plants, with that now observed throughout the globe. In the first place, it would be necessary for naturalists, before they imported species into particular localities, to study attentively the climate and other physical conditions of each spot. It would be no less requisite to introduce the different species in succession, so that each plant and animal might have time and opportunity to multiply before the species destined to prey upon it was admitted. Many herbs and shrubs, for example, must spread far and wide before the sheep, the deer, and the goat could be allowed to enter, lest they should devour and annihilate the original stocks of many plants, and then perish themselves for want of food. The above-mentioned herbivorous animals in their turn must be permitted to make considerable progress before the entrance of the first pair of wolves or lions. Insects must be allowed to swarm before the swallow could be permitted to skim through the air, and feast on thousands at one repast.

It is evident that, however equally in this case our original stocks were distributed over the whole surface of land and water, there would nevertheless arise distinct botanical and zoological provinces, for there are a great many natural barriers which oppose common obstacles to the advance of a variety of species. Thus, for example, almost all the animals and plants naturalized by us, towards the extremity of South America, would be unable to spread beyond a certain limit, towards the east, west, and south; because they would be stopped by the ocean, and a few of them only would succeed in reaching the cooler lat.i.tudes of the northern hemisphere, because they would be incapable of bearing the heat of the tropics, through which they must pa.s.s. In the course of ages, undoubtedly, exceptions would arise, and some species might become common to the temperate and polar regions, or both sides of the equator; for I have before shown that the powers of diffusion conferred on some cla.s.ses are very great. But we might confidently predict that these exceptions would never become so numerous as to invalidate the general rule.

Some of the plants and animals transplanted by us to the coast of Chili and Peru would never be able to cross the Andes, so as to reach the eastern plains; nor, for a similar reason, would those first established in the Pampas, or the valleys of the Amazon and the Orinoco, ever arrive at the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific.

In the ocean an a.n.a.logous state of things would prevail; for there, also, climate would exert a great influence in limiting the range of species, and the land would stop the migrations of aquatic tribes as effectually as the sea arrests the dispersion of the terrestrial. As certain birds, insects, and the seeds of plants, can never cross the direction of prevailing winds, so currents form natural barriers to the dissemination of many oceanic races. A line of shoals may be as impa.s.sable to deep-water species, as are the Alps and the Andes to plants and animals peculiar to plains; while deep abysses may prove insuperable obstacles to the migrations of the inhabitants of shallow waters.

_Supposed centres, or foci, of creation._--It is worthy of observation, that one effect of the introduction of single pairs of each species must be the confined range of certain groups in spots, which, like small islands, or solitary inland lakes, have few means of interchanging their inhabitants with adjoining regions. Now this congregating in a small s.p.a.ce of many peculiar species, would give an appearance of _centres_ or _foci_ of creation, as they have been termed, as if they were favourite points where the creative energy has been in greater action than in others, and where the numbers of peculiar organic beings have consequently become more considerable.

I do not mean to call in question the soundness of the inferences of some botanists, as to the former existence of certain limited spots whence species of plants have been propagated, radiating, as it were, in all directions from a common centre. On the contrary, I conceive these phenomena to be the necessary consequences of the plan of nature before suggested, operating during the successive mutations of the surface, some of which the geologist can prove to have taken place subsequently to the period when many species now existing were created. In order to exemplify how this arrangement of plants may have been produced, let us imagine that, about three centuries before the discovery of St. Helena (itself of submarine volcanic origin), a mult.i.tude of new islands had been thrown up in the surrounding sea, and that these had each become clothed with plants emigrating from St. Helena, in the same manner as the wild plants of Campania have diffused themselves over Monte Nuovo.

Whenever the first botanist investigated the new archipelago, he would, in all probability, find a different a.s.semblage of plants in each of the islands of recent formation; but in St. Helena itself, he would meet with individuals of every species, belonging to all parts of the archipelago, and some, in addition, peculiar to itself, viz., those which had not been able to obtain a pa.s.sage into any one of the surrounding new-formed lands. In this case it might be truly said that the original island was the primitive focus, or centre, of a certain type of vegetation; whereas, in the surrounding islands, there would be a smaller number of species, yet all belonging to the same group.

But this peculiar distribution of plants would not warrant the conclusion that, in the s.p.a.ce occupied by St. Helena, there had been a greater exertion of creative power than in the s.p.a.ces of equal area occupied by the new adjacent lands; because, within the period in which St. Helena had acquired its peculiar vegetation, each of the spots supposed to be subsequently converted into land may have been the birth-place of a great number of _marine_ animals and plants, which may have had time to scatter themselves far and wide over the southern Atlantic.

_Why distinct provinces not more blended._--Perhaps it may be objected to some parts of the foregoing train of reasoning, that during the lapse of past ages, especially during many partial revolutions of the globe of comparatively modern date, different zoological and botanical provinces ought to have become more confounded and blended together--that the distribution of species approaches too nearly to what might have been expected, if animals and plants had been introduced into the globe when its physical geography had already a.s.sumed the features which it now wears; whereas we know that, in certain districts, considerable geographical changes have taken place since species identical with those now in being were created.

_Brocchi's speculations on loss of species._--These and many kindred topics cannot be fully discussed until we have considered, not merely the general laws which may regulate the first introduction of species, but those which may limit their _duration_ on the earth. Brocchi remarked, when hazarding some interesting conjectures respecting "the loss of species," that a modern naturalist had no small a.s.surance, who declared "that individuals alone were capable of destruction, and that species were so perpetuated that nature could not annihilate them, so long as the planet lasted, or at least that nothing less than the shock of a comet, or some similar disaster, could put an end to their existence."[949] The Italian geologist, on the contrary, had satisfied himself that many species of Testacea, which formerly inhabited the Mediterranean, had become extinct, although a great number of others, which had been the contemporaries of those lost races, still survived.

He came to the opinion that about half the species which peopled the waters when the Subapennine strata were deposited had gone out of existence; and in this inference he does not appear to have been far wrong.

But, instead of seeking a solution of this problem; like some other geologists of his time, in a violent and general catastrophe, Brocchi endeavoured to imagine some regular and constant law by which species might be made to disappear from the earth gradually and in succession.

The death, he suggested, of a species might depend, like that of individuals, on certain peculiarities of const.i.tution conferred upon them at their birth; and as the longevity of the one depends on a certain force of vitality, which, after a period, grows weaker and weaker, so the duration of the other may be governed by the quant.i.ty of prolific power bestowed upon the species which, after a season, may decline in energy, so that the fecundity and multiplication of individuals may be gradually lessened from century to century, "until that fatal term arrives when the embryo, incapable of extending and developing itself, abandons, almost at the instant of its formation, the slender principle of life by which it was scarcely animated,--and so all dies with it."

Now we may coincide in opinion with the Italian naturalist, as to the gradual extinction of species one after another, by the operation of regular and constant causes, without admitting an inherent principle of deterioration in their physiological attributes. We might concede, "that many species are on the decline, and that the day is not far distant when they will cease to exist;" yet deem it consistent with what we know of the nature of organic beings, to believe that the last individuals of each species retain their prolific powers in their full intensity.

Brocchi has himself speculated on the share which a change of climate may have had in rendering the Mediterranean unfit for the habitation of certain Testacea, which still continued to thrive in the Indian Ocean, and of others which were now only represented by a.n.a.logous forms within the tropics. He must also have been aware that other extrinsic causes, such as the progress of human population, or the increase of some one of the inferior animals, might gradually lead to the extirpation of a particular species, although its fecundity might remain to the last unimpaired. If, therefore, amid the vicissitudes of the animate and inanimate world, there are known causes capable of bringing about the decline and extirpation of species, it became him thoroughly to investigate the full extent to which these might operate, before he speculated on any cause of so purely hypothetical a kind as "the diminution of the prolific virtue."

If it could have been shown that some wild plant had insensibly dwindled away and died out, as sometimes happens to cultivated varieties propagated by cuttings, even though climate, soil, and every other circ.u.mstance, should continue identically the same--if any animal had perished while the physical condition of the earth, and the number and force of its foes, with every other extrinsic cause, remain unaltered, then might we have some ground for suspecting that the infirmities of age creep on as naturally on species as upon individuals. But, in the absence of such observations, let us turn to another cla.s.s of facts, and examine attentively the circ.u.mstances which determine the _stations_ of particular animals and plants, and perhaps we shall discover, in the vicissitudes to which these stations are exposed, a cause fully adequate to explain the phenomena under consideration.

_Stations of plants and animals._--Stations comprehend all the circ.u.mstances, whether relating to the animate or inanimate world, which determine whether a given plant or animal can exist in a given place; so that if it be shown that stations can become essentially modified by the influence of known causes, it will follow that species, as well as individuals, are mortal.

Every naturalist is familiar with the fact, that although in a particular country, such as Great Britain, there may be more than three thousand species of plants, ten thousand insects, and a great variety in each of the other cla.s.ses; yet there will not be more than a hundred, perhaps not half that number, inhabiting any given locality. There may be no want of s.p.a.ce in the supposed tract: it may be a large mountain, or an extensive moor, or a great river plain, containing room enough for individuals of every species in our island; yet the spot will be occupied by a few to the exclusion of many, and these few are enabled, throughout long periods, to maintain their ground successfully against every intruder, notwithstanding the facilities which species enjoy, by virtue of their power of diffusion, of invading adjacent territories.

The princ.i.p.al causes which enable a certain a.s.semblage of plants thus to maintain their ground against all others depend, as is well known, on the relations between the physiological nature of each species, and the climate, exposure, soil, and other physical conditions of the locality.

Some plants live only on rocks, others in meadows, a third cla.s.s in marshes. Of the latter, some delight in a fresh-water mora.s.s,--others in salt marshes, where their roots may copiously absorb saline particles.

Some prefer an alpine region in a warm lat.i.tude, where, during the heat of summer, they are constantly irrigated by the cool waters of melting snows. To others loose sand, so fatal to the generality of species, affords the most proper station. The _Carex arenaria_ and the _Elymus arenarius_ acquire their full vigor on a sandy dune, obtaining an ascendancy over the very plants which in a stiff clay would immediately stifle them.

Where the soil of a district is of so peculiar a nature that it is extremely favorable to certain species, and agrees ill with every other, the former get exclusive possession of the ground, and, as in the case of heaths, live in societies. In like manner the bog moss (_Sphagnum_) is fully developed in peaty swamps, and becomes, like the heath, in the language of botanists, a social plant. Such monopolies, however, are not common, for they are checked by various causes. Not only are many species endowed with equal powers to obtain and keep possession of similar stations, but each plant, for reasons not fully explained by the physiologist, has the property of rendering the soil where it has grown less fitted for the support of other individuals of its own species, or even other species of the same family. Yet the same spot, so far from being impoverished, is improved, for plants of _another_ family. Oaks, for example, render the soil more fertile for the fir tribe, and firs prepare the soil for oaks. Every agriculturist feels the force of this law of the organic world, and regulates accordingly the rotation of his crops.

_Equilibrium in the number of species, how preserved._--"All the plants of a given country," says De Candolle, in his usual spirited style, "are at war one with another. The first which establish themselves by chance in a particular spot tend, by the mere occupancy of s.p.a.ce, to exclude other species--the greater choke the smaller; the longest livers replace those which last for a shorter period; the more prolific gradually make themselves masters of the ground, which species multiplying more slowly would otherwise fill."

In this continual strife it is not always the resources of the plant itself which enable it to maintain or extend its ground. Its success depends, in a great measure, on the number of its foes or allies among the animals and plants inhabiting the same region. Thus, for example, a herb which loves the shade may multiply, if some tree with spreading boughs and dense foliage flourish in the neighborhood. Another, which, if una.s.sisted, would be overpowered by the rank growth of some hardy compet.i.tor, is secure because its leaves are unpalatable to cattle; which, on the other hand, annually crop down its antagonist, and rarely suffer it to ripen its seed.

Oftentimes we see some herb which has flowered in the midst of a th.o.r.n.y shrub, when all the other individuals of the same species, in the open fields around, are eaten down, and cannot bring their seed to maturity.

In this case, the shrub has lent his armor of spines and p.r.i.c.kles to protect the defenceless herb against the mouths of the cattle, and thus a few individuals which occupied, perhaps, the most unfavorable station in regard to exposure, soil, and other circ.u.mstances, may, nevertheless, by the aid of an ally, become the princ.i.p.al source whereby the winds are supplied with seeds which perpetuate the species throughout the surrounding tract. Thus, in the New Forest in Hampshire, the young oaks which are not consumed by the deer, or uprooted by the swine, are indebted to the holly for their escape.

In the above examples we see one plant shielding another from the attacks of animals; but instances are, perhaps, still more numerous, where some animal defends a plant against the enmity of some other subject of the vegetable kingdom.

Scarcely any beast, observes a Swedish naturalist, will touch the nettle, but fifty different kinds of insects are fed by it.[950] Some of these seize upon the root, others upon the stem; some eat the leaves, others devour the seeds and flowers; but for this mult.i.tude of enemies, the nettle (_Urtica dioica_), which is now found in all the four quarters of the globe, would annihilate a great number of plants.

Linnaeus tells us, in his "Tour in Scania," that goats were turned into an island which abounded with the _Agrostis arundinacea_, where they perished by famine; but horses which followed them grew fat on the same plant. The goat, also, he says, thrives on the meadow-sweet and water-hemlock, plants which are injurious to cattle.[951]

_Agency of insects._--Every plant, observes Wilcke, has its proper insect allotted to it to curb its luxuriancy, and to prevent it from multiplying to the exclusion of others. "Thus gra.s.s in meadows sometimes flourishes so as to exclude all other plants; here the Phalaena graminis (_Bombyx gram._), with her numerous progeny, finds a well-spread table; they multiply in immense numbers, and the farmer, for some years, laments the failure of his crop; but the gra.s.s being consumed, the moths die with hunger, or remove to another place. Now the quant.i.ty of gra.s.s being greatly diminished, the other plants, which were before choked by it, spring up, and the ground becomes variegated with a mult.i.tude of different species of flowers. Had not nature given a commission to this minister for that purpose, the gra.s.s would destroy a great number of species of vegetables, of which the equilibrium is now kept up."[952]