THIRD WEEK] December 



321 



In those days these great trees were found over the 

 whole of Canada, Greenland, and Siberia, but the relentless 

 onslaught of the Ice Age wrought terrible destruction and, 

 like the giant tortoises among reptiles, the apteryx among 

 birds, and the bison among mammals, the forlorn hope of 

 the great red-woods, making a last stand in a few small 

 groves of California, awaits total extinction at the hands 

 of the most terrible of Nature's enemies man. When 

 the last venerable giant trunk has fallen, the last axe-stroke 

 which severs the circle of vital sap will cut the only thread 

 of individual life which joins in time the beating of our 

 pulses to-day with the beginning of human history and 

 philosophy, thousands of years in the past. 



Through all the millions of years during which the 

 evolution of modern forms of life has been going on, then 

 as now, trees must have entered prominently into the 

 environment and lives of the terrestrial animals. Ages 

 ago, long before snakes and four-toed horses were even 

 foreshadowed, and before the first bird-like creatures had 

 appeared, winged reptile-dragons flew about, doubtless 

 roosting or perching on the Triassic and Jurassic trees. 

 Perhaps the very pieces of coal which are burned in our 

 furnaces once bent and swayed under the weight of these 

 bulky animals. Something like six millions of years ago, 

 long-tailed, fluttering birds appeared, with lizard-like claws 

 at the bend of their wings and with jaws filled with teeth. 

 These creatures were certainly arboreal, spending most of 

 their time among the branches of trees. So large were 

 certain great sloth-like creatures that they uprooted the 

 trees bodily, in order to feed on their succulent leaves, 



