PROOFS OF EVOLUTION. 
43 
of life to the present moment, varieties of animal- 
forms and organs have developed most rapidly 
under the spurring whip of the fiercest warfare — 
a warfare not only of life against life, but of 
Nature against all. Heat and cold, dryness and 
moisture, wind and tide, lightning and storm, 
flood and fire, mountain and chasm, pestilence and 
famine, mist and darkness, one and all have stood 
like frowning giants in the path of living forms. 
But in spite of all these barriers, in spite of inter¬ 
racial strife of beak and claw, of tooth and venom, 
the residuary column has pushed onward and 
upward, readjusting itself to ever-changing con¬ 
ditions. Indeed, this very opposition and antag¬ 
onism have been the potent factors in the ascent 
of animal life. Australia has not kept pace with 
the continents because the warfare there has been 
little more than a skirmish. The continents have 
advanced under the great law of might. The 
weak, the indolent, and the stupid, were swept 
from among the living; the strong, the resolute, 
and cunning, remained victors. Evolution, and 
Evolution only, explains the facts of Geographical 
Distribution. 
