46 
PROOFS OF EVOLUTION. 
exceptional. It is doubtful whether the “ Missing 
Link” was either a sailor or a swimmer. Now, it 
is obvious that only those links meeting a watery 
fate would stand any chance of being preserved 
in the stratified rocks for subsequent discovery. 
Besides, a link before becoming immersed in 
hardening mud and sand, would do well if he 
escaped being eaten by link-eating monsters of the 
deep. And as for being preserved on land, what 
could one poor little heap of bones do as against 
the mutation of half a million years ? Therefore, 
in the very nature of time and things, we could 
not certainly expect to find a man-like link, living 
or dead. The soft parts of animals and plants, 
from their very nature, must disappear. The 
rocks themselves crumble and waste away, to be 
borne to the sea again with all their wealth, of 
fossil forms. The earth is broad and deep, the 
stones hard, and the searchers are few; and more¬ 
over, the work is hardly yet begun. A museum 
of “Missing Links” will be the attraction of the 
future. Nevertheless, with the door of Nature 
doubly barred, our sturdy scientists have broken 
through and disclosed some of the rich treasures 
beyond. 
