42 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



temptation to take his life, and the average 

 boy has no " bowels of compassion " for wild 

 animals. The boys seem to have all had the 

 apostolic vision, and heard the command, " Rise, 

 Peter, kill and eat." 



Hares are not very intelligent creatures any- 

 where, and our species is no exception to the 

 rule. The fact is that his manner of life is 

 against him. For hundreds of thousands of 

 years he has not done anything to add a brain 

 cell to his slender outfit. The fossil remains of 

 this family are found in ancient rocks of the 

 Tertiary Time, in Dacotah and elsewhere. He 

 has changed somewhat in structure since then, 

 but his teeth indicate that his feeding habits 

 have not changed. In the many divisions and 

 subdivisions of the quadruped mammalian life, 

 that come about largely through struggle for 

 existence, the hare family was evolved, or slowly 

 formed, with adaptations to eat and thrive upon 

 food that existed in plenty, and for wliich it 

 would not have to dispute with other animals. 

 Tender twigs and leaves, and wild grasses and 

 barks of trees, all of them the products of waste 

 places, were things he desired for food. To 

 secure them no planning was needed, no demand 

 was made for intelligence. A few leaps here 

 and there, and he could fill himself like an ox 



