Williams news., 1918-03-14

"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 ics 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 re- ligious man.
 And then" continued Masterman, "what does the record tell us? The moving creatures that have life were made, and the great sea monsters, Le- 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.
 
 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.
 "So some of the sea creatures re- mained in the depths, and others pre- ferred to bask on the rocks in the sum- light. Then their gills began to be replaced by lungs, or else they had gills as well as lungs, or an interme- diate 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 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 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?''
 q hardly think so, captain
 ''How about the old legends of the CyclopsesT'
 "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- init 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"
 'sPll grant that" answered Donald, eff 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 its diff fusion through the oceans every where. The depths would grow too cold for them. It's bitter cold in the water at 31 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Wouldn't the time come when they, too, would feel the impulse to migrate into the sun?''
 "No, Masterman. Their breathing"
 q know what you're going to say, lieutenant. You're going to tell me 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 busy preparing for the change during thou sands of years, while she has been mOdifViDp their piI1S into lunpS aS