THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



tous front it broke away like a frozen Niagara. 

 It was spring. Melting water murmured through 

 the still night. The water grew into streams 

 at the margin. The Vistula and Odor were 

 once streams of melted water flowing from the 

 ice. 



Thctt there was a sterile moss steppe, green 

 only during a short summer, to which the herds 

 of mammoths came. This being at his cave win- 

 dow knew this, but what he did not know was . 

 the solution of this monstrous spectacle. With 

 a dull shudder only he looked up to the moon 

 that swept like a glittering pearl over folds of 

 light green drapery. 



A frightful crisis was passing over the planet 

 earth. Because of cosmical relations the cold 

 of the outer space was given mastery for long 

 thousands of years over wide extents of this 

 planet. A Noah's flood of ice pushed over half 

 the earth. The mountains poured forth ice as 

 the volcanoes pour forth lava. For a long while 

 it was fought back. Perhaps in the primeval 

 days there were a few little forerunners. At 

 last, however, it came in full power as the great 

 ice age raged forth as if the old friendship of the 

 sun to the earth had died out and the icy power 

 of the great world space had sunk down upon 

 it. 



With water and with land, with night and 

 with light, life had fought and conquered. To 

 146 



