280 THE STORY OF THE EARTH AND MAN. 



for tlie most rigorous climates and least productive 

 soils. 



Could we have visited the world in this dreary- 

 period, and have witnessed the decadence and death 

 of that brilliant and magnificent flora and fauna 

 which we have traced upward from the Eocene, we 

 might well have despaired of the earth^s destinies, and 

 have fancied it the sport of some malignant demon ; 

 or have supposed that in the contest between the 

 powers of destruction and those of renovation the 

 former had finally gained the victory. We must 

 observe, however, that the suffering in such a process 

 is less than we might suppose. So long as animals 

 could exist, they would continue to enjoy life. The 

 conditions unfavourable to them would be equally or 

 more so to their natural enemies. Only the last 

 survivors would meet with what might be regarded 

 as a tragical end. As one description of animal 

 became extinct, another was prepared to occupy its 

 room. If elephants and rhinoceroses perished from 

 the land, countless herds of walruses and seals took 

 their places. If gay insects died and disappeared, 

 shell-fishes and sea-stars were their successors. 



Thus in nature there is life even in death, and 

 constant enjoyment even when old systems are passing 

 away. But could we have survived the Glacial period, 

 we should have seen a reason for its apparently 

 wholesale destruction. Out of that chaos came at 

 length an Eden; and just as the Permian prepared 

 the way for the Mesozoic, so the glaciers and icebergs 



