ALONE ON THE HILLS. 87 



i/od, but not the least appearance of any progressive 

 stage, which should be distinctly apparent in the 

 strata of the earth, as the progressive law is declared 

 to go on perpetually." 



"Yes, and must be acting now, if ever. Yet, all 

 through the explored regions of the world especially 

 in Southern America, where life is superabundant 

 from the smaller reptiles of early ages to the highest 

 classes of animal existence, we find no graduates, 

 but each genus and species sharply defined. True 

 enough, the monsters of the Crystal Palace are 

 extinct; but no one will suppose that they monopo- 

 lised the faculty of graduating into giraffes and. 

 greengrocers ; while with the others, existing through 

 all times up to the present, this said development 

 seems about limited to the tadpole, and soon ceases to 

 act." 



" Frogs don't come to much," said Ward, laughing. 

 " I have, in Paris, eaten the most highly developed 

 a sort of cannibalism, possibly ; but they were very 

 nice, and had no look of being one's great ancestors." 



" Frogs should get on," the Major said, " for since 

 JEsop's time they have had a reputation for ambition. 

 But what do you say of the platypus, a sort of 

 Australian water-rat, which seems to develop at both 



