EVOLUTION AND THE PRESENT AGE 269 
is of the sloth type. But if megatherium was once 
annihilated by some grand convulsion, after which a 
fresh creation of mammals occurred in South America, 
why should a sloth occur among the new creations 
rather than a kangaroo or an elephant? Fora while 
the advocates of special creations had their answer 
ready. They said that every animal is best suited to 
the conditions in which he lives, that he was created 
in order to fit those conditions; therefore God has 
repeatedly created anew the sloth type of animal in 
South America because it has all along been best 
fitted to the conditions to which animal life is subjected 
there. But this ingenious argument was soon over- 
thrown. It is true that every animal is more or less 
adapted to the environment in which he lives, for 
otherwise he would at once become extinct; but in 
order to determine whether he is best adapted to that 
environment, it remains to be seen whether he can 
maintain himself in it against all comers. Now ina 
great many instances he is far from able to do this. 
New Zealand grass is fast disappearing before grass 
introduced from Europe, and the marsupials of Aus- 
tralia are being surely and steadily extirpated by the 
introduction of species with widely different structure 
but similar habits. Thus the marsupial rodent is van- 
ishing before the European rat even faster than the 
native black fellow is vanishing in presence of English- 
men. 
Now if the Creator followed the rule of putting 
wild species only in the habitats best suited to them, 
He would have put the European rat in Australia, and 
not the marsupial rodent. This illustration shows how 
far the old style of explanation failed’to suit the facts. 
