Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1901 — BATTLES OF NATURE. [ARTICLE]

BATTLES OF NATURE.

Unceasing Struggles Which End In Survival of Fittest. We read the tablets of long ago which the geologist has deciphered for us, and we find them an endless story of battles. The successful species which occupy the great geological horizons have come out of great tribulation. The trilobites and stone lilies of the Silurian period, the gigantic club moss and fluted sigillarians of tbe coal age, the enormous ammonites of the jurassic and chalk epochs, the mighty elephants and majestic deer forms of the tertiary era are magnates of the times and masterpieces of the struggle. They have been redeemed at great price, even of a thousand species and tens of thousands of individuals, fell short of the typical fitness and were killed out. These magnates, each in its turn, were pioneers of progress, like the scouts of a great army and were caught in a physiological ambush.

The pedigree of the horse in the most recent past has been made out, traced shall we say, for a hundred thousand years before man came on the scene (for Lord Kelvin asked the geologist to hurry up and not be too lavish with time or we should have said 250,000 years before man). The fleetness, grace and strength of the horse are owing to his ability to walk on one toe, to which have been correlated the wonderful Instincts by which he has become the partner of man in his Industries and struggles. He has been derived in almost a strict gradation from the two toed, three toed, four toed and five toed ancestors which flourished in the ages which preceded man. Myriads of Individuals and all the species and varieties died out to make room for the one toed selection to enable this favorite to occupy the ground unthwarted by crossing or by recurrence to average forms. He was redeemed at a great price and has come through a great tribulation.—Contemporary Review.