1896.] Life Before FomU. 279 



that law pervades the universe, and although we do not know 

 as yet the way in which these laws are balanced to produce 

 all phenomena, that they are so balanced as to produce har- 

 mony, and that in proportion as the human mind develops it 

 will be capable of grappling with problems that are not now 

 within its reach. 



LIFE BEFORE FOSSILS. 

 By Charles Morris. 

 (Continued from page 188.) 



Such a new stage of existence may have been essayed fre- 

 quently. The dwellers in the early seas, in their descents 

 below the surface, must often have come into contact with the 

 bottom, and at times temporarily rested upon it. This contact 

 with hard substance doubtless produced some effect upon them, 

 and certain variations in structure may have proved of advan- 

 tage in these new circumstances and been retained and further 

 developed. Particularly if food was found there, and habita- 

 tion on or near the bottom was thus encouraged, would such 

 favoring variations tend to be preserved. 



But, as has been said, myriads of years may have passed in 

 the slow development of swimming pelagic animals before 

 this phase of evolution was completed. And, perhaps, not 

 until this was fully accomplished did contact with the bottom 

 set in train a new series of changes, and in time give rise to 

 the greatly transformed bottom-dwellers. The change, indeed, 

 was a great one, if we may judge by the wide diversity in 

 character between the swimming embryos and the mature 

 forms of oceanic invertebrates, and must have needed a long 

 period of contact with the bottom for its completion. Yet it 

 was probably much more rapid than had been the preceding 

 pelagic development. Contact with solid substance was a 

 decided change in condition, and may have greatly increased 



