A CAPTURED WHALE 223 



THE HIND LEGS 



were of no further use and had gradually disap- 

 peared. The end of the spine had developed a 

 huge tail to aid it in its movements through the 

 water. 



ITS FRONT PAWS, 



or feet, which had at first probably been webbed 

 were now entirely enclosed in a rubber-like mit- 

 ten and the pre-historic monster was transformed 

 to a whale. You can see the operation reversed 

 today by keeping a tadpole, in an aquarium and 

 watching its transformation to a frog, but while, 

 as a rule, it takes only a season for a tadpole to 

 change into a frog, it must have taken thousands 

 of years for the hind legs of the whale to gradu- 

 ally disappear and be absorbed into the body, just 

 as the useless tail of the tadpole is now absorbed 

 by the young frog. 



Although the whale does not now know the use 

 of legs, it apparently hates to give up the in- 

 stitution of its ancestors, so we may still -find in a 

 modern, up-to-date whale some useless bones em- 

 bedded in the coarse, stringy meat and oily fat of 

 their huge fish-like bodies, which is all that is left of 

 the hip bones or pelvis of their ancestors, and like 

 the useless buttons on the back and sleeves of our 

 own coats, their only present purpose is to let us 

 know that once on a time there was use for these 

 things. 



