310 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



by the skiff robbed the kyak or the dug-out of the means 

 of subsistence, the schooner robbed the sloop, and the brig 

 the schooner, and finally the capabilities of these various 

 craft have been developed by the demands of the circum- 

 stances under which they existed, the intervention of 

 intelligence and purpose is not to be thought of. Just as 

 the proboscis of the elephant conies from the necessity of 

 reaching beyond the ability of his short neck, and the 

 reduction of the toes of Mesohippus from the desiccation 

 of an ancient marsh (and the imagination of a modern 

 one), just so a continual breeze developed the first sail; a 

 longing for more rapid transit begat engine and paddle- 

 wheel ; habitual butting resulted in a steam-ram, and 

 much hitting hardened the ocean-steamer into a monitor. 



I hope now the case is clear.* 



It would seem that the irony of the foregoing sally 

 was sufficiently patent to any but a Jurassic Swabian. 

 Manifestly, the reality of the genealogical succession of 

 equine types is not denied, but only the assumption that 

 the simple fact of succession (in connection with gradua- 

 tion of structures) proves that it must have been a genea- 

 logical succession. Yet, of the half-dozen or more responses 

 called forth, several indicate that their authors had " failed 

 to .see the point," however protrusive. One signed " Direct 

 Creationist," and conceived in a similar ironical vein, pre- 

 tended to deny the relation of parent and offspring alto- 

 gether, because, as he suggested, such relation could not 

 be admitted in the graduated series of aquatic vehicles. 



*I am sure that Professor Marsh must have appreciated the entire good na- 

 ture with which this little satire was aimed at a weakness in the claims set up 

 for the palasontological evidence of derivation of species. He knows full well 

 that I have always been in accord with all the world in conceding him the highest 

 honor for the ability of his researches. 



