22 EVOLUTION 



fossils on the Pampas that Darwin laid vital 

 hold upon the principle long nascent in geol- 

 ogy, and especially impressed apon him by 

 Lyell, that the present is the child of the 

 past — an idea which he spent so much of his 

 life in substantiating. Let us consider some 

 other illustrations of the palseontological 

 evidence. 



Fossil Horses. — 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 

 palseontologists to invent it." One of the 

 many reasons which led him to a warm appre- 

 ciation of "the palseontological evidence," 

 was a visit to America, where he saw the 

 famous series of fossil horses which Marsh had 

 unearthed 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 evolu- 

 tionary process stand out with clearness, and 

 he must be dull indeed who can see the ad- 

 mirably arranged and convincing series in 

 the museums at Yale and New York without 



