IVONSUCH 



So however we may rightly admire the amazing 

 adaptations and nice adjustments of the shore folk 

 to their difficult haunts of life, yet we see that if life 

 on land was their goal they are all failures, and 

 we see no answer to our own evolution. In their own 

 field, however, let us continue to think of them as 

 supreme, as absolute victors, and not forget the 

 thousands and thousands of other attempts which 

 failed and were blotted from our knowledge. 



What about the flank or rear attack which we 

 mentioned? While the brilliant courageous cam- 

 paigns were going on along the sea front, there 

 were, in ages past, side lagoons, salt marshes and 

 mud holes scattered in bays and hinterlands of the 

 shore. Mud-loving fish wallowed and slithered their 

 way through the slime and shallow water, consoli- 

 dating first of all lung-like structures which could 

 use the oxygen of the air. Then, pottering about 

 and continually lifting their heads to gulp air, their 

 fins assumed more and more the nature of feet, and 

 soon they were rather amphibian than fish. Some 

 as usual became too good amphibians, and hence 

 the frogs and toads of today, with their fishy tad- 

 poles and their necessity for dampness or water. 

 And side-tracked, there was no more hope — am- 

 phibians they were and amphibians they must al- 

 ways remain. 



But other inconspicuous chaps stuck to the safe, 

 middle way, and hence — we have reptiles and birds 

 and ourselves. The real missing links are gone for- 

 ever — reptiles were too reptilian, and birds were 



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