XVIII. THE ORIGIN OF THE SWASTIKA 200
XIX. THE TOMOYE AND THE SWASTIKA 209
XX. COAL 217
XXI. BORING FOR OIL 223
XXII. THE STORY OF LIME-JUICE AND SCURVY 229
INDEX 239
EXPLANATION OF THE FRONTISPIECE
This plate shows the restoration of the extinct lizard, Dimetrodon
gigas (Cope), lately made by Mr. Charles W. Gilmore of the United
States National Museum, by whose kind permission it is here reproduced
from the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, vol. 56, 1919. It is
based upon the study of a very fine skeleton and some hundred bones of
allied species, collected by Mr. Sternberg from "the Permian formation"
exposed in the vicinity of Seymour, Texas, U.S.A. It is selected for
illustration here because its most striking feature–the high dorsal
fin-like crest along the middle of the back formed by the elongation
of the neural spines of the vertebræ–is a puzzle to the conscientious
Darwinian. Professor Case says of it: "The elongate spines were
useless, so far as I can imagine, and I have been puzzling over them
for several years. It is impossible to conceive of them as useful
either for defence or concealment, or in any other way than as a great
burden to the creatures (terrestrial non-aquatic animals) that bore
them. They must have been a nuisance in getting through the vegetation,
and a great drain upon the creature's vitality, both to develop them
and keep them in repair." The reader is referred to pp. 127, 128,
where a brief discussion of such exuberant growths will be found. The
excessive growth of the median fins in the fish Pteraclis allied to the
Dolphin which displays changing floods of surface colour as it dies–and
in the Australian Blenny called Patæcus–both figured on p. 130–should
be compared with that of the strange crest of the grotesque Dimetrodon.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
DIMETRODON _Frontispiece_
FIGS. PAGE
1, 2. ENGRAVED CYLINDER OF RED-DEER'S ANTLER, FROM THE AZILIAN
(ELAPHO-TARANDIAN) HORIZON OF THE CAVERN OF LORTET 1
3. _A._ PERFORATED HARPOON OF THE AZILIAN OR RED-DEER PERIOD.
_B._ AND _C._ IMPERFORATE HARPOONS OR LANCE HEADS 3
4. ROLLED IMPRESSION OR "DEVELOPMENT" OF THE ENGRAVING ON THE
LORTET ANTLER 12
5. RESTORATION (OR COMPLETION) OF THE ENGRAVING ON THE LORTET
ANTLER 13
6. FRAGMENT OF A ROUGHLY-PAINTED VASE OF THE DIPYLON AGE
(_CIRCA_ 800 B.C.) FROM TIRYNS 23
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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