194 WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG 



wearing the dress of their youth, or in clinging to habits 

 long out of date. Well, this is precisely the impression 

 produced by animals who have modified their ways and 

 appearances as little as possible in conformity to a new 

 state of things. Nature, as we learn if we study her, never 

 works in jumps. She takes into consideration the kind of 

 world the creature has to live in, the kind of food he has 

 to eat, the kind of enemy he has to fight with, and every- 

 thing about him is fitted for this special life, and this 

 only. If conditions change, he slowly and gradually, but 

 surely, changes with them. Some animals take much 

 longer to adapt themselves than others, just as the 

 Chinese have stuck to their own ways for thousands of 

 years, while, in a quarter of a century, the Japanese have 

 made themselves more European than the dwellers in 

 Europe. Now, the badger, the elephant, and many 

 more, are the Chinese of the kingdom of animals. The 

 very sight of them makes us put our clocks back, and 

 try to fancy what the earth was like in those far-away days. 

 As we have seen, the elephant race lived under various 

 names, in different regions from those where it dwells now, 

 and developed a suitable skin-covering to protect it from 

 the cold. At one time a great beast, in shape like an 

 elephant, but with a certain relationship, too, to the Tapir 

 family, wandered about a large part of Europe, and passed 

 much of its existence in rivers or lakes. The lower jaw 

 of this Dinotherium bent downward, and ended in two 

 heavy tusks, which would only have been an encumbrance 

 on land, but may have been very useful in grubbing up the 

 roots of plants from the bottom of the river. Or he may 

 have dug his tusks firmly into the bank and pulled 

 himself out of the water with their help. 



Then, as soon as the rhinoceros quitted the cold regions 

 of the north, and went to live in Africa, he dropped the 

 woolly coat that had protected him, and appeared from 

 henceforward in his dark grey skin, which is much less 

 becoming. As to crocodiles, the oldest known form, found 



