Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Dispersal of Shells
Hardly any branch Of natural history has been so neglected as that which treats Of the various modes by which the different classes Of organisms have become dispersed Over the surface Of the globe. Scattered Observations have indeed been made by many writers, but Lyell and Darwin were the first to gather together the existing evidence on the subject, or to test by actual experiment the effects Of exposure to salt water on the vitality Of seeds and land-shells. Owing to this neglect the idea has arisen that, seas Of very moderate width serve as complete barriers to the dispersal of most living things; and it has been thought necessary to postulate great and Often repeated geographical mutations, and even to bridge across the widest and deepest oceans, in order to account for the actual dis tribution Of mammals or reptiles, Of plants, insects, or terrestrial mollusca.
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