ghbouring continent. Now, no less
than 200 species--or nearly half the whole number--are so far deficient
in wings that they cannot fly. And, if we disregard the species which
are not peculiar to the island--that is to say, all the species which
likewise occur on the neighbouring continent, and therefore, as
evolutionists conclude, have but _recently_ migrated to the island,--we
find this very remarkable proportion. There are altogether 29 peculiar
genera, and out of these no less than 23 have _all_ their species in
this condition.

Similar facts have been recently observed by the Rev. A. E. Eaton with
respect to insects inhabiting Kerguelen Island. All the species which he
found on the island--viz. a moth, several flies, and numerous
beetles--he found to be incapable of flight; and therefore, as Wallace
observes, "as these insects could hardly have reached the islands in a
wingless state, even if there were any other known land inhabited by
them, which there is not, we must assume that, like the Madeiran
insects, they were originally winged, and lost their power of flight
because its possession was injurious to them"--Kerguelen Island being
"one of the stormiest places on the globe," and therefore a place where
insects could rarely afford to fly without incurring the danger of being
blown out to sea.

Here is another and perhaps an even more suggestive class of facts.

It is now many years ago since the editors of _Silliman's Journal_
requested the late Professor Agassiz to give them his opinion on the
following question. In a certain dark subterranean cave, called the
Mammoth cave, there are found some peculiar species of blind fishes. Now
the editors of _Silliman's Journal_ wished to know whether Prof. Agassiz
would hold that these fish had been specially created in these caves,
and purposely devoided of eyes which could never be of any use to them;
or whether he would allow that these fish had probably descended from
other species, but, having got into the dark cave, gradually lost their
eyes through disuse. Prof. Agassiz, who was a believer in special
creation, allowed that this ought to constitute a crucial test as
between the two theories of special design and hereditary descent. "If
physical circumstances," he said, "ever modified organized beings, it
should be easily ascertained here." And eventually he gave it as his
opinion, that these fish "were created under the circumstances in which
they now live, with