[Footnote E: Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory [of evolution.] The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.--Darwin, Origin of Species p. 205.] After thus escaping from the difficulty of there being no intermediate transitional forms between the species, we come to other facts not less important, and even, perhaps, more fatal to the hypothesis of evolution--I refer to the phenomena presented by "hybrids," and in order that I may not be charged with over-estimating the value of the objection founded on this class of phenomena, I shall quote the words of Professor Huxley, one of the chief apostles of evolution, and give his estimate of the weight of the objections: "There is a most singular circumstance," says the professor, "in respect to natural species--at least about some of them--and it would be sufficient for the purposes of this argument, if it were true of only one of them; but there is, in fact, a great number of such cases--and that is, that similar as they may appear to be to mere races or breeds, they present a marked peculiarity in the reproductive process. If you breed from the male and female of the same race, you of course have offspring of the like kind; and if you make the offspring breed together, you obtain the same result; and if you breed from these again, you will still have the same kind of offspring; there is no check. But if you take members of two distinct species, however similar they may be to each other, and make them breed together, you will find a check, with some modifications and exceptions-- * * * if you cross two such species with each other, then,--although you may get offspring in the case of the first cross, yet if you attempt to breed from the products of that crossing, which are what are called hybrids[F]--that is, if you couple a male and a female hybrid--then the result is that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred you will get no offspring at all; there will be no result whatsoever, * * * Thus you see that there is a great difference between 'mongrels,' which are crosses between distinct races [varieties], and 'hybrids,' which are crosses between distinct species. The mongrels are, so far as we know, fertile with one another. But between species, in many cases, you cannot succeed in obtaining the first cross; at any rate it is quite certain that the hybrids are often absolutely infertile one with another. Here is a feature, then, great or small as it may be, which distinguishes natural species of animals."[G] [Footnote F: The product of the horse and the ass--the mule--is an example.] [Footnote G: Huxley's Lectures, pp. 106, 107.]