124 



• KNO^V LEDGE • 



[Jdly 21, 1882. 



— make up a very large number. Anil the question arises 

 whi'tluT, even in the ease of those wlio can attbrd so much 

 tiuie during the years when they should lie fitting themselves 

 for the duties of life, the ttame is altogether worth the sacri- 

 fice made for it Crieket was a splendid game, though not so 

 generally well playid, when a strong and clever lad, working 

 at his lK>oks and studies, could gain enough skill with the 

 l»at or l>aU, cr l)Oth, to take a good place in his school or 

 college eleven, liut now, when we see Marlborough turn- 

 ing out a Steel, Kugby a Leslie, and so forth, who, almost 

 from the day of leaving school, are good enough to play 

 in a representative eleven of All England, it is tolerably 

 evident that the standard of school cricket is too high to 

 l«> reached, or e\ en approacheil, w ithout much more time 

 being devoted to the game than perhaps the wiser lads 

 themselves, and certainly the paients, shoidd altogether 

 ilesire, " ^\J1 work and no play " is as bad as " All 

 play and no work ; '' but "too much play and too little 

 work," too much Studd and too little Study, must have 

 mischievous etlects in the long run ; and unless we mis- 

 judge all that we have heard on such matters, a very strong 

 impression bi'gins to be entertained in certain quarters 

 (chiefly, but not wholly, parental) that this is so. 



Yet of cricket, as a school or college game, we have a 

 far liigher opinion than of cricket as developed in our 

 great three days' matches. Here all the faults of cricket 

 are exaggerated. It is always full of uncertainty ; the 

 ball which takes a wicket may come early or late, a few 

 steps to right or to left in taking up his place may enable 

 a fielder just to reach a catch or cause him just to miss it, 

 and so forth «</ i)'ftHiluiii. But the chance and uncer- 

 tainty inevitable in cricket arc increased by uncertainties 

 of weather (allectiiig the condition of the ground), by luck 

 as to time of going in (who has not seen three or four 

 of the best men lo;:e their wickets when a side has had to 

 go in daring the last half-hour or so of bad and uncertain 

 light}, and by other causes, not necessarily belonging to the 

 game, though made to do so by laws as unchangeable as 

 (and as unreasoiiable as some yf) the laws of the Medes 

 and Pen-ians I Then how many matches end in a draw I 

 Three of the most interesting dunng the hist fortniglit 

 (Austr.ilians and Mar}lebone, Australians and Yorkshire, 

 and Eton and HaiTow) have so ended. It i.«, indeed, 

 especially unsatisfactory that every game e.\cept one, in 

 which the Australians seemed to have met their match 

 this season, has ended in a draw. How many games, 

 iigain, are finished long before the allotted time is up, to 

 the annoyance of spectators and to the loss of many worthy 

 professional cricketers 7 



These defects, at any rate, uiight easily be corrected. 

 We shall sketch in our next a plan (which will certainly 

 never be followed, but that does not matter) by which no 

 game would ever end in a draw, or need ever be finished 

 till within half-an hour or so of the end of "time;" by 

 which Itoth sides would play under equal conditions as to 

 weather, hour, state of ground, and so forth ; by which the 

 men of neither eleven would be kept idling about, as of ten 

 happens now, for a wliole day — while yet a match played 

 out to the two full innings would be played under precisely 

 the same cricketing conditions as at pre.sent, and a match 

 completed in lets than two innings, or requiring more than 

 two innings to fill the three days, would still be played 

 under normal cricketing conditions during the whole time 

 that it continued. 



The I'rinccM Beatrice litt» furwanJud a liar.dfomL' prescnl to tto 

 Free I.iLrary, I.<jn(]ou-atrvut, Bcthnal-i^ccn, E. The Uni^'orgity of 

 Oxford libcl tlif LordM ('ommiiuiioncrH of tho Admiralty havo niadu 

 lar^e (.Tantii of tlair |.olilicati(jnK to the above inslilution, which is 

 mpportcd entirely by voluntary contribntionii. 



FOUND LINKS. 

 By Dr. Andrew Wilson, F.R.S.E., F.L.S. 



(Concluding Paper.) 



I PURPOSE in tliis concluding article to direct atten- 

 tion to the very interesting, and at the same time 

 astonishing, facts in favour of evolution which recent 

 researches amongst extinct and fossil Mammalui (or Quad- 

 rupeds) have brought to light Tho quadruped class pre- 

 sents us with a large and varied array of animal forms ; 

 and it is therefore needful that at the outset we should 

 endeavour to gain some plain ideas respecting the arrange- 

 ment of tho class into " orders." These latter are the 

 subordinate groups into which every " class " of animals 

 is primarily divided. To begin with, the quadrupeds 

 themselves, as a class, arc capable of being divided 

 into two distinct series. Of these, the first, as mentioned 

 in a pre^•ious paper, contains the kangaroos, wambats, 

 opossums, and their neighbours, along with the Omitho- 

 rltynclms, or duck-billed water-mole of Australia, and its 

 near neighbour, the Echidna. These animals form collec- 

 tively a division, which may be named that of " Lower 

 Mammals," inasmuch as, in respect of many points in their 

 anatomy, they exhibit a decided inferiority to our common 

 quadrupeds, and to the other members of the class. AIJ 

 other ([uadrupeds may be named " Higher Mammals," sinpe 

 they exhibit among tliemselves an agreement in structure 

 which places them above the kangaroos and their kith and 

 kin. Tabulating the great class of quadrupeds, we find 

 that the following arrangement gives a brief sketch at 

 once of the characters of the various " orders," and their 

 chief representatives. 



Order the first is called the ifonotremata. It includes 

 the Ornithorhynchus and Echidna, both denizens of the 

 Australian region. These animals exhibit bird-like cha- 

 racters, as has been shown in a previous paper. They 

 possess 'S^farsupial bones," like the kangaroo races ; and in 

 many respects present us with a peculiar and special, but 

 still low type of quadrupeds. The second order is that of 

 the J/iiraiijnalia. These arc tho kangaroos, wombats, 

 phalengers, and opossums ; the latter alone being found 

 outside the bounds of the Australian province. Hero the 

 bird-characters have disappeared, although the included 

 animals are of low structure as compared with such forms 

 as tho dogs, horses, seals, itc, of higher orders. The 

 " Marsupials," as their name implies, usually possess a 

 "pouch," supported on the "marsupial bones" that rise 

 from the front of the haunch (see Knowi.kdoe, page 532, 

 Vol. I.). Even if the "pouch" itself be wanting (as in 

 some opossums), the bones supporting it are developed. 



The Higher Mammals introduce us to order the third, 

 that of tho Cntncin, or Whales. A fish-like body, one 

 fully-developed pair of lindjs (the fore limbs) assisting in 

 the shape of swimming-paddles, a horizontal tail-fin, and 

 nostrils forming " blow-Iiolcs," are the characters of which 

 the whales, dolphins, porpoises, and the like are cha- 

 racterised. The fourth order is that of the Sirenia, 

 represented by two genera of animals — the Manatees, or 

 Sea Cows and Dugoiigs — long classified with the whales. 

 Here the body is again fish-like, and the fore limbs, which 

 are alone developed, form swimming-p.addles ; but the 

 nostrils do not form "blow-holes," and the skin is sparsely 

 covered with bristles. Tho EdenUita, or Ant-eaters, Arma- 

 dillos, Sloths, and Pangolins constitute the fifth order, 

 whose headquarters exist in South America. There is 

 only a single set of teeth in these animals, and the teeth 

 are further destitute of distinct roots, whilst they want 

 enamel. Scales or bony plates, as in the Armadillos, often 

 cover the body. 



