respect to the
fossil and recent mammals of Australia. In the year 1831, Clift gave
to Jameson a list of bones occurring in the caves and breccias of
Australia, and in publishing this list the latter referred to the fact
that the forms belonged to marsupials, similar to those of the
existing Australian fauna. But he also stated that, as a skull had been
identified (doubtless erroneously) as having belonged to a hippopotamus,
other mammals than marsupials must have spread over the island in late
Tertiary times. It is not necessary to point out that this paper was
quite unknown to Darwin while in South America. Lyell first noticed it
in the third edition of his "Principles", which was published in May,
1834 (see "Edinb. New Phil. Journ." Vol. X. (1831), pages 394-6, and
Lyell's "Principles" (3rd edition), Vol. III. page 421). Darwin referred
to this discovery in 1839 (see his "Journal", page 210.))

That the passage in Darwin's pocket-book for 1837 can only refer to an
AWAKENING of Darwin's interest in the subject--probably resulting from
a sight of the bones when they were being unpacked--I think there
cannot be the smallest doubt; AND WE MAY THEREFORE CONFIDENTLY FIX UPON
NOVEMBER, 1832, AS THE DATE AT WHICH DARWIN COMMENCED THAT LONG SERIES
OF OBSERVATIONS AND REASONINGS WHICH EVENTUALLY CULMINATED IN THE
PREPARATION OF THE "ORIGIN OF SPECIES". Equally certain is it, that it
was his geological work that led Darwin into those paths of research
which in the end conducted him to his great discoveries. I quite agree
with the view expressed by Mr F. Darwin and Professor Seward, that
Darwin, like Lyell, "thought it 'almost useless' to try to prove the
truth of evolution until the cause of change was discovered" ("M.L."
I. page 38.), and that possibly he may at times have vacillated in his
opinions, but I believe there is evidence that, from the date mentioned,
the "species question" was always more or less present in Darwin's mind.
(Although we admit with Huxley that Darwin's training in comparative
anatomy was very small, yet it may be remembered that he was a medical
student for two years, and, if he hated the lectures, he enjoyed the
society of naturalists. He had with him in the little "Beagle" library a
fair number of zoological books, including works on Osteology by Cuvier,
Desmarest and Lesson, as well as two French Encyclopaedias of Natural
History. As a sportsman, he would obtain specimens of recent mammals in
South