274 RELICS OF PRIMEVAL LIFE 



fortunately, just at the same time lime became a 

 little less abundant in the waters, perhaps because 

 of the great demands I myself had made, and thus 

 it was not so easy as before to produce a thick 

 supplemental skeleton for defence. So I had to give 

 way. I have done my best to avoid extinction ; 

 but it is clear that I must at length be overcome, 

 and must either disappear or subside into a humbler 

 condition, and that other creatures better provided 

 for the new conditions of the world must take my 

 place." In such terms we may suppose that this 

 patriarch of the seas might tell his history, and 

 mourn his destiny, though he might also congratu- 

 late himself on having in an honest way done his 

 duty and fulfilled his function in the world, leaving 

 it to other and perhaps wiser creatures to dispute 

 as to his origin and fate, while, much less perfectly 

 fulfilling the ends of their own existence. 



Thus our dawn-animal has positively no story to 

 tell as to his own introduction or his transmutation 

 into other forms of existence. He leaves the mys- 

 tery of creation where it was ; but in connection 

 with the subsequent history of life we can learn 

 from him a little as to the laws which have governed 

 the succession of animals in geological time. First, 



