Jas. 9, ISS.").] 



KNOWLEDGE 



27 



Fig. 3. — American Landscape of the Jurassic Epoch, with reptiles aud plants of the period. 



more remote epoch. It was at the end of the secondary 

 epoch that these animals disappeared for ever without 

 leaving any descendants. They were unable to adapt them- 

 selves to the new conditions of existence that were im- 

 posed upon them, and they died, whilst the mammals, on 

 the contrary, daily prcceedtd more towards the highest 

 types. 



The temperature was high during the Jurassic epoch, acd 

 uniform throughout the earth, as demon.'-trated by the 

 existence in the north of Europe of corals comparable with 

 those of the Gulf of Mexico or the South Sea. During the 

 upper .Jurassic epoch our country must have been cut up 

 into lagoons, marshes, and frequently inundated estuaries. 

 These privileged localities had a richer and more varied 

 vegetation than the mountainous portions. Here grew 

 large ferns with leathery fronds, while the declivities and 

 uplands were covered with plants that approached the 

 pandani, araucari;e, and cycads, and having almond-like 

 seeds that formed the food of the herbivorous dinosaurs of 

 the epoch. 



If, through the admirable discoveries that have been 

 made in recent years, we endeavour to bring to life again 

 the fauna of the upper Jurassic period in the Uni td 

 States, we shall find one that is no less rich and s.trange thin 

 that of the Oil "World. Here we have, amid araucari;e 



and cycads, the gigantic stegosaurus, with a body clothed 

 with bony plates aud spines, that formed a powerful armour 

 for it, and with fore legs much shorter than the hind ones ; 

 the compsonotus, with fore paws equally as well developed 

 as the hind ones; and the strange flying reptiles, the ptero- 

 dactyls (Fig. 3). 



(To he continued.) 



THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE. 



By Ada S. B.\llin. 

 I. 



BEFORE the acceptance of the theory of evolution, if 

 a que-tioii was raised as to what is the chief point of 

 difference between man and the lower animals, the indig- 

 nant answer was given — indignant, because any comparison 

 between the two was odious — "Why, man was created in 

 God's image," or " Man alone of all creatures is endosicl 

 with a soul," or " Man alone possesses the faculty of reason- 

 ing " ; and ihe same replies may still be met with froai 

 some few theologians of the old school. 



But the theory of evolution has demonstrated the fact 

 that the difference between man and the lower animals is 

 one of degree only. The hypothesis, that all animals below 



