THE WEB OE EIEE—THE SOII, 
95 
bright with trees and grass and flowers. The sun saw 
the first life arise upon the earth, mosses, ferns, gigan¬ 
tic trees, sponges, and blind sea creatures. Then he 
saw worms and shell-fish, back-boned animals with 
wings and limbs, birds, reptiles, mammals that suckled 
their young, and lastly, Man. 
Then he saw the great glaciers creep slowly south, and 
crawling inch by inch over the face of the earth, blast 
with their breath all these living things so that they died 
and, covered by the ice, were forgotten. 
How do we know all this ? We know it by the record 
of the rocks, wherein were imbedded the bones of these 
strange animals, and upon which lie the pictured outlines 
of many a leaf, many a shelled sea creature now unknown 
to man. We know it by the fossils, which are plants, tree 
trunks and even bones, turned to stone by time, and so 
preserved that we may therein read the history of the 
earth. 
Time after time life arose upon the land, only to be 
crushed again by the relentless onward sweep of the 
glaciers. The very last changes of level took place after 
the melting of the last ice sheet. Continents were 
drained, deserts laid in shifting sand, the soil settled into 
its final form and content, and living things began to 
shape themselves and adapt themselves to life in their 
particular climates. 
