The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1917-11-15

"And then" continued Masterinah,
what does the record tell usf Ihe
moving creatures that have life were
made, and the great sea monsters, Le-
yiathan and his kind, and the fowls
of the air. And afterward the eartn
monsters, and creeping things. Ana
man not till the last. Now don't tell
me, lieutenant, that the man VINO
wrote the story Of the creation wasn't
an up-to-date scientist.
"Well, sir, at last the day came when
the waters had cooled, the clouds
opened, and the sun streamed through.
BY that time the ocean wasn't so
pleasant place to live In as formerly,
especially as the climatic zones were
appearing. No doubt there was rush
to the equator on the part of the sur
face monsters. But the ocean beds
were still warm from theShot rocks,
and the heat down there was good for
several thousand, or hundred thou
sand years yet.
$50 some of the sea creatures re-
manned in the depths, and others pre-
ferred to bask on the rocks In the sun
light. Then their gills began to be
replaced by lungs, or else they had
gllls as well as lungs, or an interme-
dlate apparatus"
Common today, captain. Certain
lizards develop either lungs or gills'
according to the medium In which
they live"
"Well, sir, as I understand 1t, the
first organisms that came out on lana
were armor plated, like the crabs ana
spiny fossil fishes. Their bones were
on the outside, to protect them against
being eaten. But after while the
progressive ones turned themselves In
side out. Those that didn't, remained
like the turtles and degenerated. The
rest found that 1t was easier to escape
their enemies by using their bones as
props and developing speed.
"Now, lieutenant, suppose men had
developed that way in the depths OF
f., the sea. Suppose you had a race OF
men who had discovered, not neces-
sarily turning themselves inside out,
like us, although they might have done
so, but other means ito avoid being
eaten-say invisibillty.
"There / can refute you," answered
Donald. "Man has developed from an
extinct ape, an ancestor of his cous-
ins, the four anthropoids, supposedly
chimpanzeelike creature with the
structure of a glbbon, from which he
obtained his erect posture. Your sea
creatures would have had to 60
through the lemur-ape FORMS"
"But let us suppose man who de-
ve;oped off the line" persisted Mas
terman. "a manllke organism with
webbed feet-something like man
seal. How about mermen? Do you
believe there is anything in that
story"
II hardly think so, captain"
'How about the old legends of the
Cyclopses?"
"a myth, Masterman. Besides, the
Cyclops kept cattle and lived upon
land"
"But they ate men, lieutenant. How
ever, let us call our zen of the sea
imaginary. Grant that there might
be such creatures, though. You'll ad
nit that, with life so hard under the
ocean, they'd have developed more
cunning along certain lines than the
human race. And they wouldn't know
much about pity or love, or anything
except how TO find their food"
"Tn grant that" answered Donald
"if we accept the hypothesis that sucf
creatures exist"
Good Put q pin there, my lad
Now, as we were saying, after thou
sands of years the heat at the bottom
of the sea would disappear by its diff
fusion through the oceans every
where. The depths would grow too
cold for them. It's bitter cold in thu
water at 81 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit
Wouldn't the time come when they
too. would feel the impulse to migrate
into the sun"
NO. Masterman. Their breathing
~ know what you're going to say
lieutenant. You're going to tell mi
that, even If they could breathe air
they couldn't live when the pressure
of those miles of ocean was removed
But suppose nature has been bus.
preparing for the change during thou
sands of years, while she has beel
modifying their gllls into lungs, a
she worked on the brontosaurs. That
how nature works-quietly, softly, sc
cretly, till she's ready to launch he
thunderbolt.
Suppose second human swarm
mans poor cousins, Is getting read
to overrun the earth, and put dow
man from his throne. Suppose tn
puny swarms of monkey-men, white
yellow and black, that crawl upon tn
face Of the globe and imagine then
selves its owners, are going to be OF
liberated, not from Mars or Venus, br
out of the earths own vitals"
Captain M9sterman sat bolt uprigh
as he spoke; he looked like some ol
, prophet spelling out the doom Of maj
, The intense earnestness in his word
shook Paget's incredullty for mt
t ment, and left him sick with horror.
I Suppose that civilization, ever!
: thing which has gone to make up tn
: life we know-family love, book
, monuments, parliaments, ships-all
, It is to be at the mercy of this me
, clless horde, and that we are goin
20 fioht harder than we have fOugl