38 EVOLUTION 



fact that, just in proportion to the complete- 

 ness of the record is the unequivocal character 

 of its testimony to the truth of the evolutionary 

 theory. " 



The wealth and interest of the palaeonto- 

 logical record is, in fact, only nowadays 

 coming to be fully appreciated by the palae- 

 ontologists themselves. From collectors and 

 specialists they are becoming not only 

 museum-makers, but so far also artists, not 

 only arranging their specimens in clear evo- 

 lutionary series, like the horses at Yale or 

 the elephants' teeth at South Kensington, 

 or setting up their skeletons in living atti- 

 tudes, like the marvellous group of Iguano- 

 dons which are the glory of the Brussels 

 Museum, but becoming also sculptors, and 

 modelling their ancient monsters as they 

 must actually have lived. Nearly a couple 

 of generations ago this was tried, as notably 

 for the Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs (Liassic 

 fish-dragons and sw^an-dragons) at the Crys- 

 tal Palace, where to this day there are some 

 weird survivals, but with inaccuracies which 

 were only too severely criticized. Now, how- 

 ever, the magnificent Central Natural History 

 Museum of New York has not a few examples 

 of this new branch of the animal sculptor's 

 art, which hardly yield in vividness and 

 convincingness to the life-like triumphs of 



