CHAPTER IV 



MILESTONES OF EVOLUTION 



RuDYARD Kipling, in his " Just So Stories," gave us 

 a whimsical account, among other things, of " How the 

 Elephant got his Trunk ! " which does not accord, how- 

 ever, with the evidence furnished by facts gathered at 

 first hand ! Such evidence can only be obtained from 

 Nature herself, and much has been laboriously pieced 

 together, during recent years, by a study of fossil remains 

 gathered from various remote quarters of the globe. 

 But there are many other problems about which we are 

 equally curious, and which must be solved in part by a 

 reference to fossil remains, and in part by a study of 

 early stages of growth, which in many cases afford us 

 most surprising results. 



Time was, indeed, when it was believed that these 

 early-growth stages, if carefully followed, would reveal 

 all the mysteries of evolution, since, it was supposed, 

 every animal had to climb its own genealogical tree, so 

 to speak. But it was soon found that such hopes were 

 over-sanguine, for records of some of the most important 

 phases have been lost completely, and others blurred ; 

 while some of the phenomena have nothing to do with 

 ancestry, but represent what we may call scaffolding — 

 features which have been introduced solely for the benefit 

 of the individual. 



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