CHAPTER XXIV 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS 



LIFE is everywhere. In the air above, the earth be- 

 neath, and the waters under the earth, we are surrounded 

 with life. Nature lives : every death is only a new birth, 

 every grave a cradle. The air swarms with birds, insects, 

 and invisible animalcules. The waters are peopled with 

 innumerable forms, from the protozoan, millions of which 

 would not weigh a grain, to the whale, so large that it 

 seems an island as it sleeps upon the waves. The bed 

 of the sea is alive with crabs, mollusks, polyps, star- 

 fishes, and Foraminifera. Life everywhere on the 

 earth, in the earth, crawling, creeping, burrowing, bor- 

 ing, leaping, running. 



Nor does the vast procession end here. The earth 

 we tread is largely formed of the debris of life. The 

 quarry of limestone, the flints which struck the fire of 

 the old Revolutionary muskets, are the remains of count- 

 less skeletons. The major part of the Alps, the Rocky 

 Mountains, and the chalk cliffs of England are the mon- 

 umental relics of bygone generations. From the ruins 

 of this living architecture we build our Parthenons and 

 Pyramids, our St. Peters and Louvres. So generation 

 follows generation. But we have not yet exhausted the 

 survey. Life cradles within life. The bodies of ani- 

 mals are little worlds having their own fauna and flora. 

 In the fluids and tissues, in the eye, liver, stomach, 

 brain, and muscles, parasites are found ; and these 

 parasites often have their parasites living on them. 



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