IN THE GRIP OF AN ICE AGE 53 



to Norway without much risk to-day, because you can 

 give him Jaeger vests, a tweed suit, and a fur coat. 

 But, if clothing were unknown, what would be the 

 effect of transporting a party of Zulus to Northern 

 Siberia? Well, as we saw, practically the whole of 

 the earth's inhabitants had been living in an African 

 climate, and the worst kind of moist African climate, 

 for millions of years. No doubt there were some 

 drier regions, as the land rose; but the fossil remains 

 show that they were few. Nearly all the plants and 

 animals of the time were suited only to a moist, hot 

 climate, and were too sluggish to be re-adapted. 



As a natural result, there was a prodigious carnage 

 of the living inhabitants of the earth. This is the 

 worst aspect of "natural selection." It is a fearfully 

 effective method, but slow and costly and ruthless. 

 We should say that it is a cruel and stupid method, 

 only nature is not intelligent and responsible. People 

 who call it a *'law of nature," and so say that we must 

 follow it to-day, are rather confused. It was a law of 

 nature. That is all that science can say. However, 

 we will return to this point later. 



It has been calculated, from the fossil remains of 

 the period before and after the Ice Age, that thirty- 

 nine out of forty of all the species of animals and 

 plants on the earth during the coal forest age were 

 destroyed. They disappear from the calendar alto- 

 gether. The luscious vegetation withered away. The 

 dense forests died, and their remains were packed 



