LESSON XXVI.

LOW DOWN IN THE SCALE.

“Parts relate to whole;One all extending, all preserving soulConnects each being, greatest with the least;Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;All served, all serving, nothing stands alone;The chain holds on, and where it ends—unknown.”

“Parts relate to whole;

One all extending, all preserving soul

Connects each being, greatest with the least;

Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;

All served, all serving, nothing stands alone;

The chain holds on, and where it ends—unknown.”

—Pope.

Careful and pains-taking observation has lain at the beginning of most great discoveries; the busy miner, not the careless idler, finds the gold. A course of accurate study in some particular department of science has often opened up new views, and afforded new data in some very different and equally important subject. Thus diligent investigations in the flora and fauna of various countries have not only revealed facts connected with plants and animals, but have unfolded new chapters in the history of earth-building.

A very minute study of the plant and animal life of Australia, New Zealand, South America, and some of the South Pacific islands has made clear the fact that certain types are common to all those localities, and are not found elsewhere. Does some one say, “What is curious about that? That is nothing!” To the ardent disciple of science, whose mind is keenly at work on the problems of nature, this fact means much. The first deduction from such a fact is that these lands must once have been very nearly united, while widely separated from the rest of the world, and thatover them plants and animals have spread from a common centre.

Following the hint thus given, it has been concluded after more extended observation, that at some former time there was around the South Pole a great Antarctic continent, or a vast archipelago with its islands closely strewn upon the South Polar sea, which then was not a desolate waste of ice-floes, diversified by glittering icebergs, but was mild and beautiful as the Pacific.

We have seen that once the North Polar lands enjoyed a temperate climate and abundant vegetation. No doubt the South Polar regions were blessed with a similar golden age. Since this Antarctic continent stretched out to join, or nearly join, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and certain of the South Pacific islands, its fruits, flowers, birds, beasts, and fresh-water fishes were distributed among all these countries. When climatic changes came to the Antarctic land; when, perhaps, much of its shores were submerged; when deep and icy waters flowed where reefs and shallows had been; when whole islands sank beneath the waves never to rise again,—then Australia and New Zealand were for long ages parted from the rest of the world.

The attention of explorers has been directed to the Arctic, rather than to the Antarctic regions; thrilling adventures at the north have provoked ardent minds to seek adventures yet more thrilling. The search for sperm whales and for a Northwest Passage has diverted interest from the Antarctic land, where marvels as great and rewards as rich, no doubt, await the explorer. Now that interest in these unknown regionshas been roused it may not be long before we learn the secrets hidden for ages in ice-caskets in the south.

The tide of modern civilized life set but slowly toward those great continent-like islands which lie far to the south of Asia. Thus it happened that the plants, animals, birds, and insects that follow the progress of civilized man across the world were long unknown in these localities, while their own plants repeated themselves seed-time after seed-time, and the helpless, clumsy, old-fashioned fauna kept their race intact, living undisturbed in the methods of their earliest ancestors. The hunter’s dog and gun were unknown: the teeth of hogs turned loose to revert to the manners of wild boars, and the claws of cats relapsing from domestication to the state of savage feline tribes, did not molest the defenceless ancient families of Australian beasts. So it has happened that this country and New Zealand have preserved some marvellous types of life.

When travellers first described the curious creatures that they had found living in the Antipodes, their accounts were met by that disbelief which has often waited upon the first proclamation of truths.

The facts that the world is round; that, with regard to the earth, the sun is stationary while the earth moves; that far to the north the sun continues for weeks above the horizon in a long day without a night; that one can pass the Straits of Gibraltar—then called the pillars of Hercules—and sailing south can circumnavigate the extremity of Africa,—were long ago received as idle tales unfit for belief. In fact, some of these statements were thought to be so false that the very announcement of them was criminal.

The poet tells us that the discoverer of the North Cape, the Norseman Othere, went to the court of King Alfred to relate to him the wonders of the far north and the mighty walrus hunt held there. King Alfred could not believe the tale.

“‘Four days I sailed to eastward,Four days without a night:Round in a fiery ringWent the great sun, O King,With red and lurid light.’“Here Alfred, King of the SaxonsCeased writing for a while;And raised his eyes from his book,With a strange and puzzled look,And an incredulous smile.“‘There were six of us all together,Norsemen of Helgoland;In two days and no moreWalrus we killed three score,And dragged them to the strand.’“Here Alfred the Truth-TellerSuddenly closed his book,And lifted his blue eyes,With doubt and strange surmiseDepicted in their look.”[55]

“‘Four days I sailed to eastward,Four days without a night:Round in a fiery ringWent the great sun, O King,With red and lurid light.’

“‘Four days I sailed to eastward,

Four days without a night:

Round in a fiery ring

Went the great sun, O King,

With red and lurid light.’

“Here Alfred, King of the SaxonsCeased writing for a while;And raised his eyes from his book,With a strange and puzzled look,And an incredulous smile.

“Here Alfred, King of the Saxons

Ceased writing for a while;

And raised his eyes from his book,

With a strange and puzzled look,

And an incredulous smile.

“‘There were six of us all together,Norsemen of Helgoland;In two days and no moreWalrus we killed three score,And dragged them to the strand.’

“‘There were six of us all together,

Norsemen of Helgoland;

In two days and no more

Walrus we killed three score,

And dragged them to the strand.’

“Here Alfred the Truth-TellerSuddenly closed his book,And lifted his blue eyes,With doubt and strange surmiseDepicted in their look.”[55]

“Here Alfred the Truth-Teller

Suddenly closed his book,

And lifted his blue eyes,

With doubt and strange surmise

Depicted in their look.”[55]

Such doubts from honest souls have attended the declaration of new truths, and strangely enough, extraordinary fictions have usually been more willingly received than extraordinary facts.

When the early travellers in Australia declared that they had there found animals like none other in creation, mammaliancreatures that laid eggs and suckled their young; four legged, fur or quill-wearing animals, that were toothless, had duck’s bills, were aquatic in their habits, built nests, and had webbed feet, the description was received with a howl of derision. When skins of the marvellous creatures were sent home for inspection doubt still remained, and it was said that by some skillful manipulation the “head of a new kind of duck had been fastened to the body of a new kind of beaver to deceive science with a new kind of animal!”

Wider zoological knowledge might have suggested that these creatures which were esteemed mere myths not only existed but were exactly what was to be expected. For as “Nature makes no leaps,” it was in entire harmony with the plan and progress of creation, that the order which was lowest in the scale of its class should share the characteristics of the next lower and less highly organized classes.

The new world had already surprised the old with the marsupial opossums, and later Australia had contributed many other families of pouched animals. These had been placed in the lowest order of mammalian life. But here was a new type evidently lying still lower in the scale; and whereas some others of the newly discovered creatures bore some of the traits of ancient reptiles, these seemed to ally themselves to birds. It was hard to be believed.

When at last the disputed animals had been caught, tamed, and sent to England and Germany for examination, great was the amazement of the scientific world. Articles were written, pictures were made, and for a time the new beasts were the theme of general discussion. The first namegiven to the first specimen was the platypus, and duck-billed platypus was the common designation for a time from 1799. The colonists in Australia meanwhile named the duck-billed and beaver-like animal a “water-mole,” from the fashion of its feet. The name platypus, however, was dropped because it had already been conferred on another creature. Then more learned heads were put together, and a name was produced so long and hard in Latin, that I dare not quote it. It meant, however, “bird-beaked-paradox.”[56]Probably the reason the poor thing has survived such a name is that it knows nothing about it.

The finding of these curious animals made it necessary to erect another order in the mammalian class, an order that should embrace creatures lower in the scale than the marsupials. Four species under this order have been found, and probably there are no others. The duck-bill and the echidna, or “thorny” creature, are the two most interesting, and with most marked characteristics; to them we will now devote our attention. We shall see that no name more apt than that of “paradox,” could be given to creatures with such apparently contradictory characteristics.

FOOTNOTES:[55]Longfellow, “The Discoverer of The North Cape.”[56]“Ornithorhynchus paradoxus.”

[55]Longfellow, “The Discoverer of The North Cape.”

[56]“Ornithorhynchus paradoxus.”

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