338 0. C. Marsh— Vertebrate Life in America. 
evolution to-day is to doubt science, and science is only another 
name for truth. 
Taking, then, evolution as a key to the mysteries of past life 
on the earth, I invite your attention to the subject I have 
chosen: THE INTRODUCTION AND SUCCESSION OF VERTEBRATE 
LIFE IN AMERICA. 
In the brief hour allotted to me, I could hardly hope to give 
more than a very incomplete sketch of what is now known on 
this subject. I shall, therefore, pass rapidly over the lower 
in so 
approach man in structure, and thus indicate his probable 
origin. These higher vertebrates, moreover, are most important 
witnesses of the past, since their superior organization made 
them ready victims to slight climatic changes, which would 
otherwise have remained unrecorded. 
In considering the ancient life of America, it is important to 
bear in mind that I can only offer you a brief record of a few 
of the countless forms that once occupied this continent. The 
review I can bring before you will not be like that of a great 
army, when regiment after regiment with full ranks moves by 
in orderly succession, until the entire host has passed. My 
review must be more like the roll-call after a battle, when only 
a few scarred and crippled veterans remain to.answer to their 
names. Or rather, it must resemble an array of relics, dug 
from the field of some old Trojan combat, long after the con- 
test, when no survivor remains to tell the tale of the strife. 
why. 
y this same method of research, the more ancient strata 
of the earth have been explored, and, in our Western wilds, 
or gold. Without such spoils, from many fields, I could not 
have chosen the present theme for my address to-night. 
