The Story of Mankind | Page 7

That is the reason why we are going to
study him, rather than cats or dogs or horses or any of the other animals,
who, all in their own way, have a very interesting historical
development behind them.
In the beginning, the planet upon which we live was (as far as we now
know) a large ball of flaming matter, a tiny cloud of smoke in the
endless ocean of space. Gradually, in the course of millions of years,
the surface burned itself out, and was covered with a thin layer of rocks.
Upon these lifeless rocks the rain descended in endless torrents,
wearing out the hard granite and carrying the dust to the valleys that lay
hidden between the high cliffs of the steaming earth.
Finally the hour came when the sun broke through the clouds and saw
how this little planet was covered with a few small puddles which were
to develop into the mighty oceans of the eastern and western
hemispheres.
Then one day the great wonder happened. What had been dead, gave
birth to life.

The first living cell floated upon the waters of the sea.
For millions of years it drifted aimlessly with the currents. But during
all that time it was developing certain habits that it might survive more
easily upon the inhospitable earth. Some of these cells were happiest in
the dark depths of the lakes and the pools. They took root in the slimy
sediments which had been carried down from the tops of the hills and
they became plants. Others preferred to move about and they grew
strange jointed legs, like scorpions and began to crawl along the bottom
of the sea amidst the plants and the pale green things that looked like
jelly-fishes. Still others (covered with scales) depended upon a
swimming motion to go from place to place in their search for food,
and gradually they populated the ocean with myriads of fishes.
Meanwhile the plants had increased in number and they had to search
for new dwelling places. There was no more room for them at the
bottom of the sea. Reluctantly they left the water and made a new home
in the marshes and on the mud- banks that lay at the foot of the
mountains. Twice a day the tides of the ocean covered them with their
brine. For the rest of the time, the plants made the best of their
uncomfortable situation and tried to survive in the thin air which
surrounded the surface of the planet. After centuries of training, they
learned how to live as comfortably in the air as they had done in the
water. They increased in size and became shrubs and trees and at last
they learned how to grow lovely flowers which attracted the attention
of the busy big bumble-bees and the birds who carried the seeds far and
wide until the whole earth had become covered with green pastures, or
lay dark under the shadow of the big trees. But some of the fishes too
had begun to leave the sea, and they had learned how to breathe with
lungs as well as with gills. We call such creatures amphibious, which
means that they are able to live with equal ease on the land and in the
water. The first frog who crosses your path can tell you all about the
pleasures of the double existence of the amphibian.
Once outside of the water, these animals gradually adapted themselves
more and more to life on land. Some became reptiles (creatures who
crawl like lizards) and they shared the silence of the forests with the

insects. That they might move faster through the soft soil, they
improved upon their legs and their size increased until the world was
populated with gigantic forms (which the hand-books of biology list
under the names of Ichthyosaurus and Megalosaurus and Brontosaurus)
who grew to be thirty to forty feet long and who could have played
with elephants as a full grown cat plays with her kittens.
Some of the members of this reptilian family began to live in the tops
of the trees, which were then often more than a hundred feet high. They
no longer needed their legs for the purpose of walking, but it was
necessary for them to move quickly from branch to branch. And so they
changed a part of their skin into a sort of parachute, which stretched
between the sides of their bodies and the small toes of their fore-feet,
and gradually they covered this skinny parachute with feathers and
made their tails into a steering gear and flew from tree to tree and
developed into true birds.
Then a strange thing happened. All the gigantic reptiles died within a
short time. We do not know the reason. Perhaps