The Sttrvival of the Fittest 



They are, or their descendants will be, " our 

 furry, arboreal ancestors, with pointed ears." 

 Will they ever come down from the trees, and 

 give battle to the tiger? In quaternary time the 

 descendant of the lemur reigns unchallenged and 

 supreme. Even the magnificently molded cat, 

 light and lithe, quick and powerful, keen of eye 

 and scent, and by no means dull of brain, cannot 

 stand against trap and gun. 



It is a strange story. Our few Illustrations 

 could be multiplied indefinitely. If we have pic- 

 tured to ourselves the struggle for existence as 

 a mere battle between brutes, where the fittest 

 was always the strongest and largest, we have 

 erred completely. As Mr. Huxley has said of 

 social and ethical progress: ''It repudiates the 

 gladiatorial theory of the struggle for exist- 

 ence." ^ In fact the race is never to the swift 

 nor the battle to the strong. There must be 

 some explanation for so strange and unexpected, 

 yet constant, outcome of the struggle. One ex- 

 planation is evident and of great practical Impor- 

 tance. 



In paleozoic times vertebrates, mollusks, and 



^ Huxley, T. H., *' Evolution and Ethics." 



8 99 



