stones and decaying logs. So, in a sense, it quite 

 properly may be said that my subsequent concern 

 with seafolk was determined by this early contact 

 with one of their related kind. 



It is supposed that all organic life now inhabit- 

 ing the land and its streams and ponds, came from 

 ancestral forms originating in the sea. Of the forms 

 living on dry land, few have remained so little 

 modified in general appearance from that of their 

 forebears as the familiar sow-bug. It is an air- 

 breather and will no longer survive submersion in 

 either fresh- or salt-water. In fact, beyond certain 

 subtle differences in its abdominal respiratory 

 appendages, it so closely resembles some nearly 

 related marine isopods, that by the inexpert it 

 might easily be mistaken for them. It is doubtless 

 the most ancient of all creatures, with the possible 

 exception of the worms, living to-day strictly on 

 the dry land. By some authorities it was only 

 recently held to be a direct descendant of the trilo- 

 bite; one of the few of the very oldest creatures 

 that left their fossil remains in the rocks. But it 

 seems that still other authorities hold quite differ- 

 ent views; these deny that the trilobite is even a 

 crustacean, they aver that it is an arachnid ; which 



[85] 



