acknowledging such tremendous powers, we may mention that sailors who have irritated cephalopods with their boathooks, have had their naked arms, immersed in the water, suddenly seized by the suckers, while the animal in its fury has endeavoured to plunge its beak-like mouth into the flesh.

But these more highly organized and more locomotive animals do not appear to leave such lasting memorials of their presence as those of simple construction. Their mission is essentially destructive. They keep down redundancy of life, but we do not find that they raise atolls like the corals.

We must, however, qualify this statement by limiting it to comparatively modern times, for as the late Dr. Mantell remarked, "The living species are but representatives of the countless myriads which swarmed in the ancient seas.' Their fossil remains comprehend the most varied and striking forms of extinct beings that occur in the sedimentary strata, from the earliest secondary to the latest tertiary formations. Their fossil remains consist of the external shells, the osselet, or the internal calcareous support, the inkbladder, with its inspissated contents or sepia; the mandibles, and some of the soft parts in a state of "molluskite."

This imperfect sketch of the nervous system of the invertebrates, and its relation to the functions which it performs, must serve as an introduction to the study of those higher types to which I hope at no distant period to direct attention. In these the relations of structure and function will be more clearly appreciable, and the connection between both and the objects of animal existence will be made manifest.

†III. THE POLYNESIANS AND THEIR MIGRATIONS.

By ALFRED R. WALLACE, F.R.G.S., &c.

THE origin of the various races of the islands of the Pacific has always been one of the most difficult problems for the believers in the unity and the recent origin of man. Their diversity of physical features, of civilization, and of language, the absence of any continental races to which they could be affiliated, and the wide spaces of ocean over which they are distributed, have hitherto seemed to indicate that their origin dates from a period so remote that we cannot hope to determine it with any approach to certainty.

M. Quatrefages, however, an eminent anthropologist, has courageously attempted to solve the enigma of the origin of the Polynesians, the most important of the Pacific races. He very properly

* Medals of Creation,' p. 448.

+Les Polynésiens et leurs Migrations,' par M. de Quatrefages, Membre de l'Institut, Professeur au Muséum. Paris, pp. 199. Arthur Bertrand, Editeur, 21, Rue Hautefeuille.

VOL. IV.

M

limits this term to the brown races spread over a wide area from the Sandwich Islands in the north to New Zealand on the south, and from Easter Island on the east to the Tonga and Samoan groups on the west, but all speaking dialects of one well-marked language. Now what M. Quatrefages attempts to prove is, that these people are simply Malays, who migrated from some islands of the Malayan Archipelago (probably Bouru in the Moluccas), and have more or less intermingled with the races of Melanesia and Micronesia. His evidence to prove this is of two kinds :-first, he endeavours to show that a migration has taken place; secondly, that the Polynesians are in their physical, mental, and moral characteristics, a true Malayan race. 1. Migrations. We find in M. Quatrefages' volume a very careful summary of all the native accounts of their migrations, and also of the involuntary migrations that have recently occurred. These, no doubt, prove that the Sandwich Islands and New Zealand have been peopled by emigrants from the Marquesas and Tahiti, and the fact of this emigration is confirmed by the independent evidence of language. It is proved, therefore, that the Polynesians have passed over immense spaces of ocean, in directions not especially favoured by winds or currents, and thus the difficulty of any migration, merely from its distance, is quite overcome. It is further shown that all the traditions point to the Samoan group and the Fiji Islands as the central points to which almost all Polynesians trace their origin. It is to be observed here that these are the largest of all the islands in the central Pacific inhabited by the Polynesian race, and it is these, therefore, that we should naturally expect to have sent out colonies to the smaller islands. So far we have the strongest corroboration of there having actually been a migration in the fact of the community of language, and all the legends of these migrations speak of them as having been made by simple men, the natural ancestors of the existing Polynesians. But in the legend which refers the origin of the Samoans themselves to a migration from a large country" further west," we get into pure legend,―for the mythic Boulotou, whence the first inhabitants are said to have come, is a spiritual and not a real country, and these inhabitants are believed to have been not men, but inferior gods. And even the direct evidence of migration having been generally from the west, is by no means so clear as M. Quatrefages appears to believe; for one of the latest authorities on the subject, Mr. W. T. Pritchard, who has spent his whole life in the Pacific, and who from his long residence in the Fiji and Samoan Islands as British Consul, and his intimate knowledge of the Polynesian languages, is well qualified to give an opinion on this matter, says it is just the contrary. In his 'Polynesian Reminiscences,' p. 402, he observes: "It is, however, remarkable that in all these many instances of authenticated driftings, the course of the

drifted canoes has been from east to west, before the prevailing trade winds, and not from west to east before the westerly winds; during the prevalence of which he tells us the natives do not usually venture out on fishing or travelling expeditions. In this case, too, the corroborative proof by language completely fails, for though there is an undoubted Malay element in the Polynesian language, it is an element derived from the civilized Malay and Javanese tongues, not from those of the Moluccas, which are totally distinct.

It is to be noted also that this Malay element in the language has all the character of a recent introduction, since the Malay words are hardly changed, except by the phonetic character of the language which has received them.

2. Physical Characters.-The Malayan origin of the Polynesians at a comparatively recent date implies much physical similarity; for even if the Malay formed a still larger portion of the Polynesian language than it does, this would not prove a community of race, unless the physical characters also in some degree corresponded. It is here that we find an absolute defect of all evidence bearing upon the point in question-the similarity of the Polynesians to any race speaking the Malay language. Almost the only evidence adduced by M. Quatrefages goes to show the similarity of the brown race of Timor to those of Polynesia. But the Timorese are not Malays at all; they belong to that curious race which has close affinities to the Papuan in all moral and physical characteristics except colour, and their languages are much further removed from the Malay than even the Polynesian itself. The resemblance physically of this race with the Polynesian proves absolutely nothing with regard to the Malay question.

Now let us compare the most important and thoroughly well-established physical and mental characteristics of the two

In the following passages from Consul Hopkins' recent work on Hawai, the italicized passages show points in which the Polynesian is the exact opposite of the Malay :

"The hair of the Hawaians is black or brown, strong, and frequently curly."