Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-09-20

prey.
Its murder enthroned, Donald"
said Mastsrman. There isn't love
not even maternal love. Nor pity,
either. Suppose our world were like
that!"
He was watching Donald keenly as
he spoke.
1--WE take life as we find it." Lieu
tenant Paget answered. But, thank
heaven, life has its compensations,
which make it worth the living"
He was thinking Of Ida Kennedy as
he spoke.
But once our life was like that"
persisted Masterman. "And we've
risen above it. Don't tell me there
isn't a God when we've done that,
just as the beautiful birds evolved out
of vicious reptiles. You know, of
course, our ancestors were sea crea-
lures. That's why the specific gray
ity of the human body is about the
same as that of salt water. We were
made to live in the sea. We come
from fishes. You believe that?"
Eyes, science tells US So"
Good. Now you've studied at
school what I've only read in books,
but you know that there was a time
when the seas were warm, steaming
baths, and the steam formed clouds,
so that the sun had never been seen.
Before the sun appeared, the world
was just diffused light and darkness.
There's an answer to your Bible crit
les who say Genesis is all wrong, be-
cause it says light was made before
the sun. Light did exist, before the
sun was dreamed Of, SO far as man is
concerned.
you're right, sir" answered Don
aid, who like most sailors, was q re-
Ggious man.
"And then" continued Masterman
"What does the record tell US? The
moving creatures that have life were
made, and the great sea monsters, Lee
viathan and his kind, and the fowls
of the air. And afterward the earth
monsters, and creeping things. And
man not till the last. Now don't tell
me, lieutenant, that the man who
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 a rush
to the equator on the part of the sur
face monsters. But the ocean beds
were still warm from the hot 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
gills as well as lungs, or an interme-
date apparatus"
Common today, captain. Certain
lizards develop either lungs or gills,
according to the medium in which
they live"
"Well, sir, as I understand it, the
first organisms that came out on land
were armor plated, like the crabs and
spiny fossil fishes. Their bones were
on the outside, to protect them against
| being eaten. But after a while the
progressive ones turned themselves in
| side out Those that didn't, remained
like the turtles and degenerated. The
rest found that it 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
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 to avoid being
eaten-say invisibility."
There 7 can refute you," answered
Donald. Man has developed from an
extinct ape, an ancestor Of his cous-
ms, the four anthropoids, supposedly
a chimDanzeelike creature with the
structure of a gibbOn, from which he
obtained his erect posture. Your sea
creatures would have had to go
| through the lemur-ape FORMS
"But let us suppose a man who de-
veloped off the line" persisted Mas
terman. "a manlike organism with
webbed feet-sOmething like a man
seal. How about mermen? Do you
believe there is anything in that
story?"
ST 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 men 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"
'Til grant that" answered Donald,
'if we accept the hypothesis that such
creatures exist"
"Good! Put a 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 it's diff
fusion through the oceans every