EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION 23 



cautious statement; but it seems not unlikely 

 that it was while thus digging his fossils on 

 the Pampas that DanTinJlaj^YM 

 the principle long nascent in geology, and 

 especially impressed upon him by Lyell, that 

 the present is the child of the past an idea 

 wTifch he spent so much of his life in sub- 

 stantiating. Let us consider some other 

 illustrations of the palseontological evidence. 



FOSSIL HOUSES. Huxley made a strong 

 statement in 1855 as to the futility of seeking 

 in the study of fossils for confirmation of the 

 doctrine of evolution, but after a quarter of a 

 century of investigation he was as strongly of 

 the opposite opinion, declaring that " if zoolo- 

 gists and embryologists had not put forward 

 the theory, it would have been necessary for 

 palaeontologists to invent it." One of the 

 many reasons which led him to a warm appre- 

 ciation of " the palaeontological evidence," was 

 a visit to America, where he saw the famous 

 series of fossil horses which Marsh had un- 

 earthed from American Tertiary beds one of 

 the most impressive of pedigrees that has yet 

 been disclosed. For although we are not even 

 now able to state the lineage of the modern 

 horse, the chief steps in the evolutionary 

 process stand out with clearness, and he must 

 be dull indeed who can see the admirably 



