ic beings on our earth, and their disappearance from it, than any
other class of facts.

His observation of the evidences of the rise and fall of thousands of
feet of the earth along the Cordilleras leads him to make this rather
startling statement: "Daily it is forced home on the mind of the
geologist that nothing, not even the wind that blows, is so unstable
as the level of the crust of the earth."

There is now and then a twinkle of humor in Darwin's eyes, as when he
says that in the high altitude of the Andes the inhabitants recommend
onions for the "puna," or shortness of breath, but that he found
nothing so good as fossil shells.

Water boils at such a low temperature in the high Andes that potatoes
will not cook if boiled all night. Darwin heard his guides discussing
the cause. "They had come to the simple conclusion that 'the cursed
pot' (which was a new one) did not choose to boil potatoes."

In all Darwin's record we see that the book of nature, which ordinary
travelers barely glance at, he opened and carefully perused.

V

Natural Selection turns out to be of only secondary importance. It is
not creative, but only confirmative. It is a weeding-out process; it
is Nature's way of improving the stock. Its tendency is to make
species more and more hardy and virile. The weak and insufficiently
endowed among all forms tend to drop out. Life to all creatures is
more or less a struggle, a struggle with the environment, with the
inorganic forces,--storm, heat, cold, sterile land, and engulfing
floods,--and it is a struggle with competing forms for food and
shelter and a place in the sun. The strongest, the most amply endowed
with what we call vitality or power to live, win. Species have come to
be what they are through this process. Immunity from disease comes
through this fight for life; and adaptability--through trial and
struggle species adapt themselves, as do our own bodies, to new and
severe conditions. The naturally weak fall by the wayside as in an
army on a forced march.

Every creature becomes the stronger by the opposition it overcomes.
Natural Selection gives speed, where speed is the condition of
safety, strength where strength is the condition, keenness and
quickness of sense-perception where these are demanded. Natural
Selection works upon these attributes and tends to perfect them. Any
group of men or beasts or birds brought under any unusual strain from
cold, hunger, labor, effort, will under