Chapter VIII 



THE STORY THE SEA HAS TOLD 



You may wonder how we know these things, 

 how scientists can be sure that the ancestors 

 of whales, seals and manatees lived on land, 

 how naturalists can prove that certain occur- 

 rences took place or that certain things existed 

 in the immeasurably distant prehistoric times. 



Really there is nothing puzzling, nothing 

 mysterious about it, for the sea has left its 

 story plainly written for those who know how 

 to read it and it is just as foolish to refuse to 

 believe this story as it would be to refuse to 

 believe a real book merely because it was 

 printed in a foreign language which some of 

 us cannot read. 



The story that the sea has left for scientists 

 to read and interpret is far more enduring 

 than any book ever written by man, for the 

 story of the sea is engraved in solid rock and 



is as lasting as the world itself, and while its 



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