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LIFK : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



out of Britain, we may find other impressive illustrations. For, as 

 Dr. Skene says, "it is quite certain that we have many oaks which 

 have passed their thousand years, and some which may be much 

 older". 



Another way of looking at the insurgence of life is to think of 

 some of the extraordinary haunts which many living creatures have 

 sought out. Colonel Meinertzhagen, s|x^aking recently of the lofty 

 Tibetan plateau, directed attention to the herds of antelopes and 

 kiangs (wild ]x>nies) that seem to be able to thrive on next to 

 nothing! The explorer marked out with his field-glass an area 

 where he saw a small herd of kiangs feeding, and then visited the 

 s|K)t. Measuring a si)ace one hundred yards by ten, he gathered up 



B55S^^«^ 



The St()rin-r»'trrl (I'rtuellaria pclagica), the smallest web-footed bird, just 

 ov<r SIX iiulus in length, which is at home on the open sea, and rarely 

 tniu hcs land except at the nesting-time. 



every scrap of vegetation, and the result was a quaint collection — 

 seventeen withered blades of coarse grass and seven small alpines 

 — not enough to feed a guinea-pig! Of course, the kiangs had been 

 there Ixfore him, but there was little but very frugal fare all around. 

 Meinertzhagen, to whom we owe much information on the altitude 

 of bird fliglit, saw a flock of swifts at i8,^'oo feet. At 19,950 feet he 

 shot a raven wliich shnwtxl undue inquisitiveness as to his move- 

 ments; at 21,05c) feet, tlie highest point reached, he found a family 

 of wall-creejxrs- dainty little refugees of the mountains. Facts 

 like thes<' must be taken into consideration in our total conception 

 of life, for they are surely as es.sential to the picture as the semi- 

 permeability of the cell-membrane, or any other fundamental fact 

 of life-structure. No doubt hunger is a .sharp spur; the impelling 



