V 

 HOOF AND CLAW 



. 



NOT much of the chalk is left in Scot- 

 land. An occasional flint rolling in 

 upon the shore seems to hint at a 

 possible deposit under water off Aber- 

 deen. That and a few patches on the west 

 coast are all. With the chalk my story begins. 

 A somewhat dim phase of geologic time, it was 

 pregnant with great issues in the evolution of 

 life. Archaic creatures enter, to appear on the 

 hither side as forms with which we are more 

 familiar. 



In the interval the mammals received their 

 initial development. Among the rest the ungu- 

 lates may be said to have come into being. In 

 numbers they crowded forth. In vast flocks and 

 herds they scattered over the plains and marshes 

 of a new world. If not exactly as we know 

 them, still sufficiently near to be easily recognized. 

 Their habits were as now. Their share was 

 every green thing, the grass that grows for the 

 cattle. 



That they are hoofed animals is diagnostic 



56 



