II 



THE ENCLOSURE 39 



which proved favourable to their work, little by little 

 they gained a superiority over the less favoured ones, 

 founded a race by transmitting their fingerless stumps 

 to their descendants, and finally, the primitively fingered 

 insect became the fingerless Scarabaeus of our time. 

 I am willing to agree to this reasoning if it could first 

 be demonstrated why, with like labours, — labours 

 even far harder, — the Geotrupes has preserved his 

 tarsi. Meantime let us continue to believe that the 

 first Scarabaeus who rolled a ball, perhaps on the 

 shores of some lake where bathed the Palaeotherium, 

 was as much without tarsi as him of our own day. 



