62 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



learning lessons as we do, by getting ideas into 

 our head, but rather as the races of domestic 

 dogs or horses have in the course of thousands 

 of years learned lessons. Inborn qualities that 

 were unsuitable have brought penalties to their 

 possessors, and these have been wiped out 

 from the list of shore animals. Inborn quali- 

 ties that were peculiarly well fitted for shore- 

 conditions have brought their possessors great 

 success, and these possessors have survived. 



When useful qualities are established in a 

 race of animals, like docility in dogs, they are 

 not readily lost They may be lost along cer- 

 tain lines of descent, just as pigment has been 

 lost in white rats which are descendants of 

 the common brown rat, but they are not likely 

 to be lost altogether. So it is not fanciful to 

 suppose that qualities, which were established 

 among shore animals millions of years ago, 

 may have enriched the inheritance of animals 

 which are now far away from the shore, may 

 even have enriched Man's inheritance. Those 

 in the highest form of a school may not re- 

 member that they learned anything when they 

 were in the junior school, though they prob- 

 ably learned much! 



But what were the good qualities which the 



