States; and finally, the heavy snowfalls, early in October,
which eventually render a territory as large as France and
Germany, absolutely impracticable for ruminants, and destroy
them by the thousand--these were the conditions under which
I saw animal life struggling in Northern Asia. They made me
realize at an early date the overwhelming importance in Nature
of what Darwin described as "the natural checks to over-
multiplication," in comparison to the struggle between in-
dividuals of the same species for the means of subsistence, which
may go on here and there, to some limited extent, but never
attains the importance of the former. Paucity of life, under-
population--not over-population--being the distinctive feature
of that immense part of the globe which we name Northern Asia,
I conceived since then serious doubts--which subsequent study
has only confirmed--as to the reality of that fearful competition
for food and life within each species, which was an article of
faith with most Darwinists, and, consequently, as to the dominant
part which this sort of competition was supposed to play in the
evolution of new species.

On the other hand, wherever I saw animal life in abundance,
as, for instance, on the lakes where scores of species and millions
of individuals came together to rear their progeny; in the
colonies of rodents; in the migrations of birds which took place
at that time on a truly American scale along the Usuri; and
especially in a migration of fallow-deer which I witnessed on
the Amur, and during which scores of thousands of these in-
telligent animals came together from an immense territory,
flying before the Coming deep snow, in order to cross the Amur
where it is narrowest--in all these scenes of animal life which
passed before my eyes, I saw Mutual Aid and Mutual Support
carried on to an extent which made me suspect in it a feature
of the greatest importance for the maintenance of life, the
preservation of each species, and its further evolution.

And finally, I saw among the semi-wild cattle and horses in
Transbaikalia, among the wild ruminants everywhere, the
squirrels, and so on, that when animals have to struggle against
scarcity of food, in consequence of one of the above-mentioned

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