Page Ten 



EVOLUTION 



Twigs from the Family Tree 



By N. K. McKechnie, 



Millions of years aijo a forest fire drove a family of our trec-dwcllinri ancestors 

 apart. Most of them escaped over a mountain pass into a inarm and hospitable forest 

 land, but tnvo youngsters, who had become separated from the others, were forced by 

 tlie flames to seek rcfuye in a deep luater-course. 



SECOND INSTALLMENT 



BITTER indeed was the lot the fire 

 had brought to these, and evil the 

 days that they must endure. Only in the 

 stream-bed that had been their refuge was 

 any vegetation found, and that not of a 

 nature to afford them sufficient sustenance. 

 They eked out its scanty provender with 

 distasteful shell-fish and occasionally a 

 find of turtles' eggs, and wandered on 

 and on until the brook they were following 

 emptied itself into a larger stream, whose 

 farther bank was clothed with trees. 

 Drawn by irresistible desire they essayed 

 to cross by leaping from rock to rock, and 

 here one of the little creatures met his fate. 

 Weakened more than his brother by a 

 month's privation he failed to make good 

 the widest gap and was swept away. But 

 the survivor reached the opposite bank and 

 springing into a walnut tree ate his fill 

 for the first time in many a long day. 



For over a year he wandered solitary 

 along the river valley while his little ribs 

 clothed themselves with flesh again and 



his rough coat once more became sleek and 



smooth. Food was abundant, and he did 



not know what else he lacked until one 



day he encountered some of his own kind, 



a family group resembling the one to 



which he had belonged. 



With joyful chatter he swung himself 



through the trees to join them, only to be 



met by a snarling rush of the old male, 



whose bristling hair and bared teeth 



showed plainly the newcomer's presence 



was far .from being desired. 



The wanderer checked his advance and 



hurriedly retired. Although he had now 



reached his full growth and was quite the 



equal in size of this surly family head, the 



habit of subordination to his own father 



forbade him to dispute a second Daddy's 



authority. Disconsolate he watched from 



a distance the gambols of the band and 



followed them in their rovings day after 



day, sometimes making timid advances of 



friendship towards a straggler, that were 



always cut short by menacing Daddy. 

 On this being repeated again and again 



a new emotion began by fits to sway the 



wanderer's spirit. Sometimes after being 



chased to a distance by the troop-guardian 



he would relieve his feelings by futile, 



unregarded chattering and gnashing of 



teeth; sometimes while he watched the 



band at play he would seize the branch 



on which he stood and shake it until the 



dead twigs fell in showers ; sometimes even 

 his rage would so possess him that he 

 would erect his hair, stiffen his legs till 

 he walked on tip-toe and give a sharp 

 angry bark that infallibly brought the old 

 patriarch upon him, quick to answer the 

 challenge. The wanderer never dared 



await the onset, — but each time it was 

 more unwillingly that he retreated. 



At last came an occasion when he lin- 

 gered too long and the old male had him 

 driven to the end of a branch from which 

 there was no way of escape. And then 

 suddenly his rage flared up, and he flew 

 open-mouthed at his enemy. 



The clash of meeting threw them both 

 off the bough and by sheer luck he was 

 uppermost when they struck the ground, 

 suffered less from the shock than the other, 

 and in a moment was tearing at his op- 

 ponent's throat. Half-stunned by the 

 shock of his fall the latter made but a 

 feeble resistance and even that faded when 

 a gush of warm blood from a rent jugular 

 uelled into the wanderer's mouth. Soon 

 the younger animal felt the body of his 

 adversary grow limp and lifeless beneath 

 him. He worried it a little more, but 

 meeting no response, drew away with a 

 somewhat bewildered air, sniffed inquis- 

 itively, looked inquiringly around, became 

 aware of the other members of the band, 

 started towards them, stopped suddenly to 

 look back at his late opponent,— there was 

 no prohibitory sound or movement, — and 

 there and then forgot the past and leapt 

 to meet his new play->fellows. 



He was a long way the biggest and 

 oldest male of the troop (owing to the 

 stern disciplinary code of its late leader) 

 and in few weeks' time he was proving 

 himself a worthy successor to the patriarch ; 

 — no less than five too-precocious young- 

 sters had been forced into exile! 



He thus laid the foundation of a long 

 and safe rule, and begat a numerous pro- 

 geny. For millions of years his descend- 

 ants lived and died, becoming numerous 

 when their environment favored them, dy- 

 ing out when it did not, but always leav- 

 ing survivors adapted to new conditions. 



And so in this way the descendants of 

 the Wanderer changed. They became 

 bigger, heavier, less at home in such trees 

 that remained, more inclined to the solid 

 ground. And because they had formed the 

 habit of rising on their hind legs when 

 they reached to a bough above their heads, 

 so they found it often convenient to do so 

 when on the ground, and their feet began 

 to accomodate themselves to the change. 

 And their hand-like front paws came more 

 and more to be used for handling things, 

 and so much the less for bearing the 

 weight of the body while walking. And 

 with the increasing use of the hand came 

 more exercise for the brain, and that again 

 found more work for the hand to do. 



Thus it was when, perhaps a million 

 years ago, the first of the ice-ages closed 

 like a hand of death upon their world, 

 they had already become men. The suc- 



NOVEMBER, 1928 



cessive glacial-periods were the final test- 

 ing times by which they were perfected. 

 For times of trouble were always their 

 times of growth, — when they did not diel 

 They sheltered in caves when the first 

 ice-age came, naked hairy long-armed 

 creatures with a stooping shambling gait, 

 whose only tools were clumsy stones held 

 in the hand; they left thera at the con- 

 clusion of the final one erect, clothed, of 

 a stature and brain equal to our own. 

 And from that time to ours their history 

 is known. We are their final descendants. 

 * * * 



But of the Wanderer's blood relations 

 who by chance (merely by chance, it 

 would seem) found their way to the lush 

 country on the southern side of the moun- 

 tain range, a far different story is to be 

 told. 



Not for them the stern discipline of an 

 increasingly unfavorable environment with 

 resultant demands upon their latent powers 

 of adaptation. For millions of years no 

 need arose for them to modify the way of 

 living of their fathers. Only their increas- 

 ing size and weight made them less free 

 of the slenderer-branches of the trees; 

 nearer the ground they must descend, until 

 finally it suited them to come and go en- 

 tirely upon the forest floor, only ascending 

 the trees to sleep in safety at night. And 

 such was their size and terrible strength 

 when full-grown that even this was un- 

 necessary for the adult male. Secure he 

 slept at the foot of the tree in which his 

 family was established and no night- 

 prowling flesh-eater dare molest him. 



But something of the primeval warmth 

 was departing from the earth and as the 

 slow milleniums passed he traveled un- 

 consciously southward through the endless 

 forest to where the sun had fuller power. 

 It was in the later stages of his long 

 journey that life for him began to be dis- 

 quieted. Still disregardful of the flesh- 

 eating animals and fearing them not, he- 

 was met occasionally now by a strange 

 creature that walked upright as he did 

 and resembled him somewhat, though of 

 much slighter build. True, this newcomer 

 fled hastily at sight of him if the en- 

 counter took place in the bush, but some- 

 times If he had led his band to a feast oni 

 the succulent herbs that often grew near 

 the new creatures' dwelling-places, these 

 mysterious beings would appear in great; 

 numbers and unprovokedly attack them.. 

 And they had the power of stinging un- 

 accountably from distance. So their neigh- 

 borhood became places to be avoided, 

 which meant a constant shifting of feeding 

 grounds, because the newcomers seemed to 

 be spreading over the whole earth. 



Menaced by this invasion that they knew 

 not how to combat, faced indeed now at 

 the end of their time by a test infinitely 

 more stern and swift of action than any 

 that the Wanderer's progeny had had to- 

 endure, the forest-folk withdrew deeper 

 and deeper into the as yet uncoveted 

 places of the jungle. 



Would you like a glimpse of them at: 

 the present day? < 



(Concluded in next issue) 



