"More," continued the doctor, "is too general in his descriptions. He has not a scientific mind, and he gives but few data; yet I can bring before myself very easily all the scenes which he describes, particularly that one in which the megalosaurus approaches, and he rushes to mount the dinoris so as to escape. I see that river, with its trees and shrubs, all unknown now except in museums--the vegetation of the Coal Period--the lepidodendron, the lepidostrobus, the pecopteris, the neuropteris, the lonchopteris, the odontopteris, the sphenopteris, the cyclopteris, the sigellaria veniformis, the sphenophyllium, the calamites--" Melick started to his feet. "There, there!" he cried, "hold hard, doctor. Talking of calamities, what greater calamity can there be than such a torrent of unknown words? Talk English, doctor, and we shall be able to appreciate you; but to make your jokes, your conundrums, and your brilliant witticisms in a foreign language isn't fair to us, and does no credit either to your head or your heart." The doctor elevated his eyebrows, and took no notice of Melick's ill-timed levity. "All these stories of strange animals," said Oxenden, "may be very interesting, doctor, but I must say that I am far more struck by the account of the people themselves. I wonder whether they are an aboriginal race, or descendants of the same stock from which we came?" "I should say," remarked the doctor, confidently, "that they are, beyond a doubt, an aboriginal and autochthonous race." "I differ from you altogether," said Oxenden, calmly. "Oh," said the doctor, "there can be no doubt about it. Their complexion, small stature, and peculiar eyes--their love of darkness, their singular characteristics, both physical and moral, all go to show that they can have no connection with the races in our part of the earth." "Their peculiar eyes," said Oxenden, "are no doubt produced by dwelling in caves for many generations." "On the contrary," said the doctor, "it is their peculiarity of eye that makes them dwell in caves." "You are mistaking the cause for the effect, doctor." "Not at all; it is you who are making that mistake." "It's the old debate," said Melick. "As the poet has it: "'Which was first, the egg or the hen? Tell me, I pray, ye learned men!'" "There are the eyeless fishes of the great cave of Kentucky," said Oxenden, "whose eyes have become extinct from living in the dark." "No," cried the doctor; "the fish that have arisen in that lake have never needed eyes, and have never had them." Oxenden laughed. "Well," said he, "I'll discuss the question with you on different grounds altogether, and I will show clearly that these men, these bearded men, must belong to a stock that is nearly related to our own, or, at least, that they belong to a race of men with whom we are all very familiar." "I should like very much to have you try it," said the doctor. "Very well," said Oxenden. "In the first place, I take their language."