8 EVOLUTION. 



appears between animals that hatch their young from 

 eggs and those that give birth to living forms. But 

 we find animals whose young break the ^^^ as soon 

 as it is laid, and others that bring forth their young 

 in an imperfect state and nourish them in pouches 

 until fully developed. These marsupials are inter- 

 mediate forms, and suggest other connecting links. 



The researches of Prof Marsh among the Tertiary 

 rocks in the Western States have revealed several 

 intermediate forms between existing groups of 

 animals. Fossils are found which combine charac- 

 teristics of the bear and the beaver ; others connect 

 the rat and the ant-eater, the odd-toed and the even- 

 toed animals, the whale and the seal, the swine and 

 the ruminants. An eminent naturalist was asked, 

 " Do you find the missing links ? " ** Yes, thousands 

 of them ! " was the reply. 



The resemblance between apes and men is very 

 marked, and Haeckel says : " It requires but a slight 

 stretch of imagination to conceive an intermediate 

 form between the lowest woolly-haired man and the 

 highest man-like apes." A great outcry is made for 

 the presentation of this missing link, that shall com- 

 pletely fill up the gap which exists. But the Evolu- 

 tion theory does not require, as many suppose, that 

 man should have descended directly from the exist- 

 ing form of apes. The gorilla and man are at the 

 top of different branches, which have sprung from 

 the same limb of the tree of life. The connection 



