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 intelligent
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