THE WORLD OF NATURE is most fascinating and intriguing, because of the great versatility in creation.  The Supreme Architect apparently delighted in creating a well-nigh endless variety of life, including forms of life that are unbelievably odd and so defy explanation.  These unusual creatures, and the vast numbers of varieties in life, are in the air, on the land, in the earth, and in the sea.  And here is the miracle of this intricate and involved creation: every one of the myriads of forms of life on earth is "whole, complete and perfectly fitted to the environment in which it was made to live and function."  Moreover, each distinct genus is essentially static, breeding "after its kind" generation after generation, with absolutely no evidence of transmutation from one genus into another.

            The record of prehistoric life in the rocks is the same: 

            "When a family appears it appears whole and complete and fitted for the environment for which it was made to live" (Did Man Just Happen? p. 68). 

Endless Varieties of Life on Earth 

            More than a million different animal species have already been described, classified and named — "and it is probable that many thousands more are still to be discovered."  In the world of insects alone there are at least a million different kinds, * not all of which have been described and classified.

            * Insects are as remarkable for their variety as for their numbers.  There are tiny wasps less than one-one-hundredth of an inch long.  There are thin insects, fat insects, meek insects, fierce insects, flat insects, cylindrical insects, insects that seldom move and others as fleet as the wind.  WHICH CAME FROM WHICH — or, did the Creator design and make them all?

            The beetles alone include some 250,000 species!  Butterflies and moths total over 110,000 species!  Bees, wasps and ants number over 10,000 species!  Here are the questions that arise;  Since evolution demands such long periods of time for the development of species, by the slow processes of "fortuitous changes" and "natural mutations," how can it possibly account for such a vast number of species, and why did such an incredible number of species evolve in the same environment?  Why, if evolution did it, did not all beetles evolve into a few primary varieties?  If it took millions of years to develop one type of beetle, how long did it take to evolve 250,000 species?  Then think of the other thousands of species of life on earth.  And remember, the 250,000 species of beetles are distinct species, each an interbreeding population, and NOT just "varieties."  Since science has set the age of our earth at from four to five billion years, ALL EVOLUTION MUST HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN THE LAST TWO TO THREE BILLION YEARS AT THE MOST.  So the whole theory collapses in view of the vast variety of life on earth, and the tremendous time needed by evolutionists to account for even minor changes.

            Wherever one looks in nature, he is confronted by innumerable varieties of life — especially in the lower echelons. 

            There are over 100,000 known species of fungi; 5,000 species of green algae; 3,000 species of sponges; 5,000 species of corals and their kin; 25,000 species of crustacea (barnacles, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, etc,); 80,000 species of mollusks or shellfish; and there are over 300,000 species of plant life!           

            Many of these multiplied forms of life exist in great profusion. 

            "Two hundred million insects may inhabit a single acre of pasture" — and the same acre will harbor trillions upon trillions of bacteria. 

            Many insects multiply with unbelievable rapidity.  Consider the aphids. 

            "If all the progeny of a pair of aphids survived for ONE SEASON they would number 1,560,000,000,000,000,000,000,000."  Thanks to the Creator's marvelous provisions of maintaining "balance in nature" their natural enemies do not permit a run-away development of aphids, fleas, or any other prolific insect. 

            Most amazing of all — EACH OF THESE MYRIADS OF SPECIES IN NATURE HAS ITS OWN DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS.  For instance: 

            "Each of the giant silkworm moths of North America makes its own distinctive cocoon, and many of them have a distinctive leaf for food.  the cocoons of the Luna and Lo moths are merely spun in a leaf, with which they fall to the ground.  On the other hand, those of the Promethea moth (which feeds on spicebush, sassafras and other trees), are spun in a leaf which is securely bound to its twig." 

Variety Among Beetles 

            Nowhere in nature can one see such vast variety as exists in the 25,000 species of beetles.  Some beetles are as small as a pinhead, and others, like the elephant beetles (the Goliath and the Titan) are a full six inches in length!  Some, like the weevils, destroy our foods and crops, and others eat vast quantities of destructive insects.

            The so-called "death-watch beetle" (Anobium) will bang his horny head upon the wood where he has made his home, making a noise to attract his lady-love.  Because of this strange ticking sound, the superstitious call it the "death-watch beetle."

            We already have spoken of the bombardier beetle that, when apprehensive of attack, "will audibly eject with explosive force a fluid which volatizes, upon emission, into smoke." *

            * The Guiana termites have an equally strange ability.  Members of a "soldier caste" among them have a sort of squirt gun on their heads, through which they squirt a sticky liquid over raiding ants that have invaded their colonies.  How long would it take "evolution" to develop that "squirt gun"?  Who gave them the chemical formula for this "sticky liquid" so well suited to their defense needs? 

            Blind evolution is helpless to produce such endless intricacies of design and adaptation. Why — how — could chance evolution, by "random changes," produce an intricate, living, workable mechanism like a bombardier beetle — then suddenly and radically change the pattern and produce, let us say, a "water beetle" (adapted to aquatic life,) and then repeat this process 250,000 times! 

            Other distinctive beetles are the "violin" beetle (so named because of its peculiar shape), the "dung" beetle that rolls up dung into a ball several times bigger than itself, "water" beetles, the so-called "drug-room" beetle — so named because "it waxes fat on chemicals strong enough to poison an army."  Another strange beetle (the Sitodrepa panicla) thrives on cigars. 

            And now, more questions for evolutionists to answer:  How many generations or ages did it take unguided evolution gradually to make the change in eating habits from cotton or corn to tobacco and poisonous chemicals?  And why do these beetles persistently refuse, generation after generation, to change their eating habits, whether their diet is cotton, corn, cigars or poisonous chemicals?  The truly logical and satisfying answer is, GOD MADE THEM SO IN THE BEGINNING.

            Why is it that the larvae of the "stag beetle" passes years in timber oak trees before it attains its adult form?  whereas the larvae of the so-called "oil beetles" have the "incomparable instinct" of gaining a living in bee hives!  And note well the complicated procedure these larvae go through to get their daily rations: 

            "When hatched they climb without difficulty the stems of flowers where they calmly await the arrival of a bee.  As soon as a bee comes along the oil beetle larva takes a firm hold of the bee's hair and rides along to the hive where if first diets on the eggs of the queen bee, and later (it undergoes two distinct stages of development) it subsists on the honey of the hive."  This phenomenon is so utterly unaccountable that evolution is at a complete loss to explain this mystery. 

There is Great Variety Everywhere  

            Whenever one looks in nature there is great and pleasing variety.  The cheerful songs of birds are as varied as their colored plumages and their nests.  The intriguing subjects of sound and color in nature disclose variety without end. 

            We have the chirp of the cricket, the babbling of the brook, the swish of the wind, the crackling of the fire, the melody of the songbird, the bark of the dog, the mooing of cows, the neighing of horses, the bleating of sheep, the gentle purring of the cat, the roar of the lion, and a thousand and one other sounds we are all familiar with and that help make life pleasant, interesting and adventurous.

            In the realm of color we have the same phenomenon: endless, pleasing variety.  Who has not been charmed by the subtle colors of the rainbow, the ever-changing color schemes of the sky at the time of the setting of the sun?  What is more fascinating than the gorgeous display of colors in a flower garden or the richly colored plumage to be seen in the aviary?

            Who gave the sea shells their delicate colorings and symmetrical and attractively colored?  Who created the "Glory of the Sea," an exquisite sea shell from the West Indies?  The Fingers of Omnipotence can also be seen in the pinkish shells of the "Angel's Wings" bivalves, that live about a foot below the surface of the mud.  Why such ornate beauty covered by mud — unless the Great Designer loves the beautiful and made this shell so that man too might enjoy its loveliness with Him?  Who first put on the drawing board the intricate designs of such shells as the limpet, whelk, moon shell, the fascinating helix, and the charming periwinkle?  Who tinted the "Queen conch" with delicate pastel shades of pinks and yellows and light browns?  It would take volumes even to begin adequately to describe all the marvelous, symmetrical and beautiful sea shells that are subjects of study and admiration to students of conchology.  But Whoever made them left evidence in His handiwork that He is an Engineer par excellence and an Artist without a peer! 

            Why is it that all things in nature are not a dull slate color, or a listless gray?  Such infinite variety and pleasantness as exists in the color schemes of the world — in sky, earth and seas — witness to the fact of purposeful design, by One who loves the beautiful, and shows His desire that mankind too enjoy the lovely and the beutiful things He has made.

            Let us now discuss the fact of: 

The "Fixity" and "Constancy" of each Genus 

            If ever the evolutionist had an opportunity to demonstrate his theories, it would be in the realm of some lower forms of life, such as bacteria or aphids, or flies, that multiply so rapidly and with but brief periods of time from one generation to the next.  And yet, THERE NEVER HAS BEEN ANY DEMONSTRABLE CHANGE OF ANY GENUS INTO ANOTHER, NO MATTER HOW BRIEF THE TIME FROM ONE GENERATION TO ANOTHER, IN ANY OF THE INNUMERABLE GENERA ON EARTH. *

            * Some bacteria and protozoa, under favorable conditions, can mature and reproduce a new generation in 30 minutes or less.  Thus over 17,500 generations could appear in one year!  Yet we have proof that many kinds of these minute creatures have persisted without perceptible change for many thousands of years.  Ancient Greeks and Egyptians suffered from the same bacterial diseases we do.  Moreover, paleontologists have found numerous examples of diseased conditions among fossils of ancient rocks, proving that certain pathological conditions of the bones, caused by the same disease producing microbes that are active today, have persisted without perceptible change for countless generations. 

 On the other hand, each genus demonstrates a most stubborn "fixity" and absolute refusal to change, even through long ages.  And this well-known fact can be proven abundantly from the writings of evolutionists themselves!  Consider well the force of the facts presented in these quotations. 

            "Mollusks are one of the oldest and largest groups of animals.  For over a half a billion years species of mollusks have been common in the seas."

            "Some of the oldest known fossils are corals that lived about 500,000,000 years ago."

            "At the base of the family tree of animal life are single-celled animals (Protozoa) WHICH STILL LIVE in warm shallow seas as they did many millions of years ago."  (Caps ours).

            "As long as 200 million years ago, roaches and other insects were common. . . .Most of the 12,000 kinds of fossil insects identified are similar to living species."  (This reminds us of the statement by Huxley, "The only difference between the fossil and the animal of today is that one is older than the other.")

            "Gastropoda (shellfish, limpets, winkles, whelks, etc.), are very old inhabitants of the sea and have lived there without undergoing much change for from three to four hundred million years." (The Living Sea, p. 202).

            "One hundred twenty million years ago, oysters lay in quantities in the shallow seas." (Ibid) p. 211).

            "Chitons (amphineurans) first appeared nearly 500 million years ago, yet they have remained unchanged to this very day."  (National Audubon Society Nature Program).

            "Scorpions can boast of the longest family line of any land animals.  They have changed hardly at all during a span of 400,000,000 years" (W. J. Gertsch).

            As far as the earliest geological records of the existence of algae (sea weeds) allow us to see, THEY HAVE NOT CHANGED MUCH IN EITHER FORM OR LIFE ACTIVITIES; some species of today may well be identical with ancestors that lived in the Archeozoic sea about 1.2 billion years ago."  (Francis Joseph Weiss, in "The Useful Algae,"  Scientific American, 12-'52).

            "Sharks appeared on earth 300,000,000 to 350,000,000 years ago" (T. H. Eaton, Junior).

            "In the rocks of the earliest period for which we have good fossils (The Cambrian Period), all of the important invertebrate phyla are already represented.  So that . . . the fossil records have nothing to say about the order in which the phyla arose" ("Animals Without Backbones").  (What a confession, coming from an evolutionist).

            "Turtles . . . have come down almost unchanged in form and habits since the great Age of Reptiles, more than 160,000,000 years ago."  (Book of Popular Science, p. 2075).

            "Modern species of Lingula (one genus of Brachiopods) are almost identical with species which we estimate, from the fossil record, to have lived almost 500,00,000 years ago.  This is a record for conservatism among animals, and Lingula has the 'honor' of being the oldest-known animal genus."  (Animals Without Backbones, p. 178).

            "The Ginkgo, or maiden-hair tree, flourished during the Jurassic period, and was the first broad-leaved tree.  It still exists today in China and Japan, having undergone no change for more than a hundred million years" (Book of Knowledge, Vol. 5, p. 1545).

            Speaking of the "King Crab" )Genus Limulus), one authority says, "These animals are often referred to as 'living fossils' because they have changed so little from the earliest fossil representatives of the group." (Animals Without Backbones, p. 271). 

Grasshoppers in Glaciers and Ants in Amber 

            Two most remarkable witnesses for the "persistence of Species" are GRASSHOPPERS IN GLACIERS AND ANTS IN AMBER.

            There is a so-called "Grasshopper Glacier" of the "Pleistocene age" (one to two million years ago), in Montana.  In the Glacial Period, these grasshoppers fell by the millions into a lake; they froze there and the lake became part of the glacier.  "One can see those grasshoppers in the glacier today, and they are the same kind of grasshoppers we have now."  (Did Man Just Happen, p. 74).

            Many scientists have written on "Insects in Amber."  (See "Insects in Amber," by Charles T. Brues, Scientific American; "Evolution of Insects," by Carpenter, in the 1953 Annual Report of The Smithsonian Institution;  The Living Sea (chapter on Time Periods and Fossils).  Here is the unbiased witness of Chas. T. Brues: 

            "There is a deposit vault where we can find ancient insects, more beautifully preserved than any fossil ever disinterred from the rocks.  This reservoir is amber: an ancient tree-sap which trapped insects like fly-paper and then hardened to preserve the insect intact for millions of years. *

            * It is difficult to date fossils.  No one knows how old they are.  But the ancient dates scientists quote become a most powerful argument for they themselves admit that they believe many species HAVE NOT CHANGED MATERIALLY FOR HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF YEARS!

            It is now possible to compare the insect life of 70 million years ago with that of today. . . Among the earliest insects were some hardy types, such as the cockroaches, THAT STILL EXIST IN MUCH THE SAME FORM. . . .Some 70 million years ago (insects) WERE PRESENT IN NUMBERS AND VARIETY COMPARABLE TO THE PICTURE THEY PRESENT TODAY.  The insects of that period, as preserved in the Baltic amber, were very similar to those that now inhabit the temperate regions of Europe and North America" (Insects in Amber).

            ". . . .More remarkable still is the occurrence in the amber (Baltic amber) of certain species of insects, mostly ants, which are apparently identical with some species now living.  The Baltic amber has also furnished proof of the existence of social habits among the insects of that time, for the ants that occur there include, in addition to males and females, major and minor workers.  The extent to which the complex habits of living ants had already been acquired in the early Tertiary is shown by the presence of plant lice attended by ants in search for honey dew, and by the presence of mites attached to the ants in the same manner as is characteristic today." (Annual Report, 1953, Smithsonian Institution).

            And so there is proof that through the ages ants have not changed either their form or their social habits — not even their custom, still practised today by many ants, of using aphids as "cows" as a source of honey dew for their own use!  There is overwhelming proof, from scores, even hundreds, of scientists, that GENERA ARE STATIC — they tend, for ages on end, to reproduce "after their kind," showing no change in either form or habits for periods of time running into the millions of years — even hundreds of millions of years, according to evolutionists.

            We feel constrained to quote the words of our friend, Prof. Leroy Victor Cleveland.

            "Not a bacterium, nor alga, nor salp worm, nor anything else ever evolved higher.  Check the facts and see.  The Rhodesian alga are supposedly 'three billion years old.'  WHEN, pray tell, are they going to evolve higher?  Or when will ameba, stentor, volvox, ascidian larva, ant, moss, gnat, clam or bedbug 'evolve higher'?" 

Another Question for Evolutionists to Answer: 

            Now, we believe, is the time for us to ask this question: 

            "How could it occur that one individual, or a few individuals, of a given genus, or population, should advance toward a higher type, WHILE ALL THE REST OF THE SAID SPECIES SHOULD REMAIN in status quo?"  For example:  Amebas we have still with us today, and they still multiply true to form.  Yet the amebas are supposed by some evolutionists to be one of the earliest forms of animal life.  IF ONE AMEBA "EVOLVED" WHY DIDN'T ALL OF THEM EVOLVE?  HOW IS IT THAT THERE ARE ANY AMEBAS ON EARTH TODAY, IF THEIR TENDENCY IS TO EVOLVE TO HIGHER FORMS?

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THE MANY STRANGE AND ODD SPECIMENS OF LIFE ARE WITNESSES TO THE FACT OF SPECIAL, DIVINE CREATION.   

            One of the strangest creatures God ever made is the Australian Platypus.  We believe He purposely made it to confuse and confound the evolutionists.  It is a squat, heavy-bodied animal about eighteen inches long.  It weighs three to four pounds.  It has a deep rich brown velvety fur (gray or white underneath) like the fur of a seal or a mole.  It has a flat bill, like a duck, with no teeth after it reaches maturity.  It has five toes on each foot, which is webbed — a cross between the feet of a duck and an animal adapted to scratch and dig.  It is one of the only two mammals in the world that lays eggs. * Unlike other hatched animals, their young nurse.  But instead of nursing from "conventional" nipples or breasts, the young simply lick the mother's belly fur, and the milk follows the hair ends.

            * The other mammals that lay eggs are the Echidnas, toothless, spiny anteaters, also of Australia.  Echidnas do not in other respects resemble the Platypus.  Instead of having a covering of fur, they are covered with sharp, hard spines.  Their snouts are long and slender.  They live on ants and termites.

            The male platypus has a hollow spur on the inside of its heel, which connects with a gland as poisonous as most poisonous snakes.  So it is the world's ONLY venomous furred creature.

            Unlike most mammals, its limbs are short and parallel to the ground — like the limbs of a lizard.  Its eyes are small, while its external ear is only a hole, and not the customary ear-lobe such as mammals usually have.  In habits it is nocturnal.

            To help hold its food, which it catches under water (worms, snails, larvae, insects, etc.), it has large cheek pouches like those of a monkey or a squirrel.

            It lives in burrows, which start from a point below water level, in rivers or ponds.  The Platypus can dig well despite the fact that the web on its front feet extends out beyond the claws.  The web folds back, like a small umbrella, into the palm, leaving the sharp claws exposed, ready for aggressive digging.  The unique foot of the platypus is "an amazing contraption" and gives clear evidence of design and adaptation for an intended purpose — to dig and to swim.

            What did the platypus evolve from?  Let us imagine an Evolutionists' Round Table Discussion of this problem.

            "He must have got his bill from the duck," suggested one.  "That is obvious."

            "Think so?" asked the second.  "But a duck has feathers, not fur.  It seems to me his fur indicates direct descent from some animal like the beaver — but then a beaver doesn't lay eggs."

            "Wait a minute," interposed a third.  "He's toothless and has spurs: that could suggest an ancestry from the chicken — and remember a chicken lays eggs, too."  He caught his breath, thought for a moment, then changed his course.  "But then, a chicken doesn't have fur either.  That pesky fur eliminates descent from either a duck or a chicken.  Quite confusing," he mumbled.  But he started in again.  "The female lays eggs, but she isn't a bird.  Then too, those poison spurs present a problem — no other furred animal is venomous."

            "Yes, and she suckles her young, but has no breasts," interrupted the first speaker.  "Whales suckle their young — but then they don't lay eggs.  Confound this problem, anyhow!  Everywhere we turn we meet a roadblock.  Let's try another line.  The male has poison-dealing spurs, something like a snake, but they are spurs and not fangs.  And everyone knows it couldn't come from a snake anyhow, for a snake doesn't have webbed feet."

             Speaker number two had been engaged in deep thought.  He was now ready to theorize again. "How in the name of common sense did it get its nipples — I mean its milk hairs, or what do I mean."  He was clearly confused.  Presently he reassembled his wits and continued.   "And from what did its webbed, clawed feet develop — from ducks or muskrats?  We have already eliminated ducks, and I guess we'll have to throw out muskrats, because they don't lay eggs."  He started to scratch his head.

            It may have been that unconscious gesture that caused another cogitating disciple of Darwin to suggest that "there might possibly be some distant relationship between the platypus and the monkey — for both have pockets in their jaws to carry food in."  But on second thought he opined that "that isn't possible because the monkey is higher up the ladder of evolution than the platypus."

            "Then where will we place this evasive critter" asked one of the Discussion Group who up to this time had felt that silence was the better part of rushing in where angels fear to tread.  Being a neo-Darwinian, he had mentally recoiled from their naive and hasty suppositions.  "We'll have to look into this matter from the viewpoint of heredity and genes," he reminded them, with an evident air of superior knowledge.

            "But his genes must be as mixed up as he is," countered the first theorists.  How could sensible genes and chromosomes come up with a conglomeration like this thing?  He isn't a duck, or other bird, or a beaver, or a snake, or a monkey, or a lizard, much less a whale — but he seems to have been assembled from parts of all of them!"

            At this point a "theist evolutionist," who usually keeps his opinions to himself, suggested somewhat shyly, "Well, maybe this is where God stepped in and helped evolution along."

            At this the rest of the group chuckled and the first speaker said in a superior tone — "certainly you don't believe that an all-powerful and an all-wise God is going to waste time guiding evolution!  If a 'Supreme Being' had any thing to do with it, it is much easier to believe in 'special creation' than what you suggest."

            The second speaker chimed in: "I agree; it seems to me that if a 'Supreme Being' had anything to do with it He wouldn't follow such a devious route that requires such a waste of time; but my main objection is that no one yet has told us WHAT the platypus came from — or how it got along before its organs were fully evolved."

            "I'll tell you what" said the neo-Darwinian, with a twinkle in his eye, "He probably was dropped down from Mars!"

            They all laughed and were about to give up the discussion, when an even tempered professor, who had been listening up to this point, said: "Don't give up; remember evolution does its work slowly — through millions of years.  Just give us more time, perhaps a few millions years more — and we'll come up with the right answer.  After all, the platypus is HERE, and it HAD to evolve from something" — and then he suddenly recalled the animated discussion they had had — or shall I say, 'from some things,' didn't it?"  More laughter, and then they quit the discussion, this time for good. 

            Clearly, the conglomerate platypus defies all explanation, from the viewpoint of the theory of evolution.  It is one of God's road-blocks, warning the theorists of the blind alley ahead that they persist in going down.  It is therefore a living Witness for God and Creation, shouting to all who will listen to facts and common sense: 

            "GOD designed my perfectly adapted feet for the niche in life He created me to fill; my webs are to swim with and my claws are to dig with, and they work, even if it is a novel arrangement.  GOD gave me my bill so I could secure my food from the mud from under the water; and GOD put those pockets in my jaws so I could hold more food at each diving, and then come to the surface and enjoy my meal at leisure.  GOD gave me my fur to keep me warm after my repeated immersions.  GOD put claws and poison fangs on me so I could protect myself against my natural enemies.  GOD gave me the knowledge to build my well-designed home underground, with an underwater entrance that helps keep my family from many dangers.  And I rather suspect that God made me as He did, equipping me with 'impossible' combinations, in a most unusual departure from normal routine, to confuse and confound those who ignore HIM, I tell you GOD MADE ME AS I AM — and I want the world to know it!"

Plant Oddities 

            Every plant in the world is a miracle and a mystery, with a thousand and one functions, characteristics and abilities that defy all explanation:  all life is like that.  Life itself is that most mysterious thing on this planet for it is the gift of GOD, the infinite Author of life.  Some forms of life deviate so from conventional types that they seem to defy the very laws of life.

            Some bacteria can live in hot springs at a temperature of 1750 F., while spores of other bacteria have survived after being exposed to the temperature of liquid air (-3100 ).  Some flowers push their way up through snow and ice, while others lie dormant in desert sands for years, then carpet the desert valleys after a rain that may come but once in several years.

            Many deadly poisons (some of which are useful drugs) are extracted from delicate plants with beautiful flowers, such as aconite from monkshood.  Strychnine, opium, cocaine, digitalis and belladonna are but a few of the many others.

            Some plants die as soon as they have flowered, * while some trees (the Joshua trees and the giant sequoias) live up to 3,000 years and more.

            * There is a bamboo plant in the mountains of Jamaica, that takes 32 years to mature.  It then flowers ONCE — and dies.  No one knows why.

            The great water lily of the Amazon and Indonesia has leaf blades five feet in diameter, while some palms have leaves twenty feet long.  There are seaweeds that grow in the dim light of the ocean 450 feet below the surface.  This is quite an achievement, for the light is so dim at that great depth, that the normal process of photosynthesis is greatly retarded.

            There are several kinds of "epiphytes," or "air plants," that get their nourishment from the air rather than from the soil.  The staghorn fern is an example. 

            "It grows on other trees, with its leaves pressed against the trunk of the tree.  The leaves cover large masses of roots that get their nourishment direct from the air." 

            One could try vainly for a thousand generations to "educate" the roots of plants or trees adapted to get their food from the soil, to get their sustenance from the air only — and not succeed.  How is it then that SOME plants, the "epiphytes," HAVE mastered the secret?  The answer is, God in the beginning made them so.

            Who designed the 500 kinds of so-called "killer plants" that trap, kill and eats insects?  We already have mentioned some of these, such as the famous "pitcher plant."

            What could be more ingenious, complicated, designed for a purpose, and with apparent "intelligence," than the machinations of the sundew? 

            The sundew plant has about 200 tiny red filaments on the upper surface of each leaf.  Each filament is club-shaped at its free end and carries a refractile goblet of fluid, that is a sticky substance from which it is impossible for an insect to free itself.

            Movement of wind, rain or dust, or falling bits of mud, sand or leaves, or even small bits of sugar, placed on them by human hands, on the leaves of the sundew, cause the leaves and the filaments to re-act.  The filaments will secrete an acid fluid, but there is no attempt whatever at "capturing" the non-living object, nor is there any attempt to digest it.  "BUT LET A SMALL INSECT LIGHT ON A SUNDEW LEAF, AND — wonderful to relate — THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE SECRETION OF THE FILAMENTS IS AT ONCE CHANGED INTO A DIGESTIVE FERMENT, and the process of appropriating the unfortunate insect as food begins."  Where did a lowly plant get such "intelligence?"

            The bladderwort, that grows in water, is equally amazing.  It is equipped with traps that look like small bladders floating in the water.  These traps are cleverly designed to catch small aquatic animal life. 

            An opening exists at one side of the bladder.  Around this opening is a set of radiating hairs set diagonally outward.  These serve to guide the unsuspecting victim into the mouth of the trap.  The opening is provided with a hinged, transparent door which opens inward but not outward.  Once a creature has entered this door, his doom is sealed, for the door closes and he cannot get out.  He becomes food for his captor — a PLANT showing more intelligence than an animal!  Or, is it that the Creator has made the plant function in such a way as to seem to have intelligence?  In any event the whole scheme shows design  that could only have been achieved by a Designer. 

Nature Teaches Man Many Moral Lessons  

            Did the Creator make the bladderwort only so that it could ensnare and kill and eat small animals?  Or, is there a moral lesson in it for mankind?  In a world judged by reason of the Fall of Man, there is much "evil" in nature — the reflection of the evil in mankind.  We personally, however, have no doubt that God deliberately created many animals and plants for the express purpose of teaching mankind some important lessons.  Both the spider's web and the bladderwort's trap are graphic illustrations of temptation and the resulting ruin.  The fox is the age-long illustration of cunning and rapaciousness.  The lamb is the picture of non-resistance to evil.  The lion speaks to us of powerful leadership.  The poisonous snake reminds us of deadly cunning.  As a matter of fact, there is an important lesson inherent in practically every creature God ever made.  The Son of God while on earth spoke often of lessons from nature, as the branch "abiding" in the vine, the adornment God gave to the lilies of the field, the shortness of life of the grass of the field, etc.  Then, too, He was spoken of as the "Lamb of God" that takes away the sin of the world. 

More About Peculiar Insects 

            We already have called attention to a few of the many strange "beetles."  Let us list some other strange facts about insects.  

            Though the great majority of insects come from eggs, through a larval stage, the aphid, a tiny plant louse, sometimes gives birth to live young!

            In Java there are strange earthworms that sing — and even whistle!

            Consider the "misplaced" ears of the grasshopper. 

            "The ears of the grasshopper are either at the base of her abdomen or in her forearms, according to her species. . . .What surprises me is that Nature. . . .has had the imagination to put ears anywhere else than on the side of the head" (The Hunting Wasp, p. 53). 

            What quirk of Evolution could move ears from the side of the head to the base of the abdomen, or to the forearms?  And how many million years did it take to make such a change?  How did the grasshopper hear while its ears were being moved?  For the sovereign all-powerful God to change the style occasionally creates no special problem — but for unguided "evolution" to be given the credit for such a radical change creates an unanswerable problem.

            Who instructed the Difflugia, a free-living relative of ameba, to gather sand grains, cement them together with a sticky secretion and build them into a kind of house having a definite design (it looks like a ball) which it carries about with itself and into which it withdraws when disturbed? (See "Animals Without Backbones;" chapter on "A Variety of Protozoa," p. 49).  And who imparted to this small protozoan the secret formula for this cement?

            A female water bug, "not trusting her husband's voracious appetite," cements her eggs directly to his back, where he cannot reach them!  How long would it take this lowly water bug to think up this scheme, and put it onto practice by training her husband to co-operate and stand still while she did the cementing?  And how much longer would it take her to design and install in her tiny body a chemical plant capable of manufacturing the proper kind of cement to make the eggs stick there?  If the female water bug had to rely on the uncertainty of "random changes" to produce such a wise scheme as she has to protect her young, she would NEVER attain her end; as a matter of fact, she would NEVER have the foresight to think up or desire such a scheme in the first place. 

The Strange Cicadas 

            These peculiar insects, the cicadas, are sometimes called "Seventeen-year locusts," though the 75 species of cicadas differ widely in the time they take to mature. Their life cycle is very strange — and utterly unaccountable, aside from the miracle of Divine creation.

            The females cut slits in young twigs and deposit eggs in them.  As the wingless, scaly young hatch, they drop to the ground, burrow in, AND STAY THERE FOUR TO TWENTY YEARS, according to their species — and no one can ever guess why.  Those that stay in the ground four years breed a new generation that also stays in the ground four years; and those that stay in 17 years breed a new generation that stays in the ground 17 years!

            As nymphs underground, they live on juices sucked from roots.  When its predetermined time cycle elapses, the full-grown nymph emerges and climbs a tree trunk.  Its skin splits down the back, and the adult emerges.  These adults live about a week — long enough to mate and start another brood. 

            Why do they stay underground for several years?  Who designed them and gave them the necessary adaptations for such a long underground existence?  If they enjoy underground living so well, why do they ever come out — why not just live and die underground?  Evolution has no answer. 

The Extremely Odd "Praying Mantis" *

* Also called "Preying mantids."  

            The so-called praying mantis is an "insect nightmare" if ever there was one.  It is commonly about 2 inches long.  Its spiny, ferocious forelegs, its protruding eyes that pop out from its head that appears to be a caricature of a snake's head, its long body and ambling gait, and its bony "armor" suggest "a prehistoric reptile in miniature."  It has no voice, and lacks real ears.  Its closest "relative" in nature is the grasshopper — but it is so unlike the grasshopper, there is a "gulf" between them impossible to bridge by any evolutionary theory.  It is a cannibal; and in the natural state its prey must be "alive and moving."  In the fall the female lays hundreds of eggs in a frothy mass that dries like hardened brown foam.  "After mating, the female dispatches her mate with a well placed bite and devours him at her leisure." (National Geographic Magazine article on "Praying Mantis").

            Neither in appearance nor in habits (characteristics) can the Praying Mantis be explained by evolutionary theories.  The variations in the over 1000 species (15 of which may be found in the United States) may be accounted for on the basis of "gene mutations," but WHERE DID THE ODD CREATURES COME FROM TO START WITH?  Who gave the mantis the uncanny ability "to thrust forth her spiny forelegs" with lightning speed and grab her victim (a fly or other insect) as in "a toothed steel trap?"  From what ancestor did the female learn the revolting art of beheading her husband, who is smaller and of slighter build?  The mantis, in looks and in habits, is like a lone island in the midst of a vast ocean of creation, with NO CLOSE CONNECTION WITH OTHER INSECTS.

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STRANGE FISH AND OTHER ODD INHABITANTS OF THE SEAS:

WITNESSES TO THE FACT OF DIVINE CREATION  

            It has been said that "the body of the tuna fish represents one of the most perfect streamlined contours known to Nature."  But then, other fish also draw forth enthusiastic comments about their perfect streamlining:

              "An adult swordfish may measure 15 feet from tip of sword to end of tail.  It is shaped on the lines of a mackerel and is the epitome of streamlining.  The pointed head. . . the sharp, backward rake of the dorsal fin, the long, lithe, powerful body, sloping gradually to the great crescent-shaped, tail, fit it for the most rapid and forceful movement through the water."

            Its sword — "stronger than steel" — is so sturdy and sharply pointed that, "when driven with terrific speed, it can penetrate the oaken planks of ocean-going vessels." 

            The air bladder of the bony fish is obviously designed for an intended purpose. 

            "Most of the bony fishes posses air bladders, containing oxygen — sometimes undiluted — to enable the fish to float at certain depths.  By regulating the gas pressure the fish can readily move about on a horizontal plane at any reasonable depth." (The Living Sea").

            As a fish rises toward the surface, the pressure of the surrounding water decreases, and consequently the gas in the bladder expands and the body of the fish tends to rise too rapidly.  But then gas is absorbed by the appropriate parts of the bladder wall, so that equilibrium is restored.   When the fish descends, the system works in reverse — and it is all automatic. 

            There are features about the anatomy of the fish not yet fully understood by modern science.  For example: 

            "In a cavity on each side of the fish's skull are two chambers, each containing a small stone.  These are the ear stones, or 'otoliths,' and these chambers and stones constitute the ears of the bony fish.  These ears are very different from the ears of land dwellers, and quite how they operate is not known,"  (The Living Sea, p. 141). 

            To believe that an intricate and working mechanism for hearing and balance, designed for use under water, should have just "happened" or came about by "chance mutations" is absurd.

            Whales and some fish do not have the "air bladders" that the bony fishes have; and how they (the whales) endure the tremendous pressure changes involved in dives of several hundreds of fathoms is a mystery.

            Every type of marine life is especially "adapted" to its own environment and to the place in the scheme of things that the Creator assigned to it.  It is not necessary to illustrate this fact by many cases, but let us give one. 

            The weevers, arrow-like fishes with thatched flanks as though streaked with rain beaten down at an angle by the wind, are Trachinidae (from the Greek trachus, or stinging) and they spend most of the time more or less buried in sand.  This way of life determines their three fundamental characteristics (or, do the 'characteristics' the Creator endowed them with determine their habitat and manner of living?  We believe the latter).  All of these characteristics are excellently "adapted" to their life: eyes directed upwards to spot their prey from their hiding place in the sand: a mouth with a vertical gape made to snap at any prey coming within reach; and dorsal fins with long and venomous spines to protect them against their enemies.  ( The Underwater Naturalist, p. 209). 

            Instead of trying to delude ourselves into believing that these fish (weevers) lived in the sand, at first totally unprepared for such an existence, and that these special "adaptations" developed through the ages, it is much more reasonable to believe that the Great Designer made the weevers to suit the habitat He put them in.  A fish does not plan ahead.

            If a fish tried to live in an environment and was totally unprepared for its hazards, it (the species) would soon become extinct, and never arrive at a state of adaptation.  This fact is one of the principle arguments against the fallacy of evolution. Adaptation, to be workable, must be perfect; an imperfect or partial adaptation is unworkable and ruinous.  ALL life throughout the entire realm of nature is perfectly adapted to its environment and gives indisputable evidence of being designed and hence created for its place in the world of nature.  Moreover, each genus is static, persistently so, and gives no evidence whatever of change from its "kind" except in minor "variations" within the confines of the genus.  The happy state of "workability" and "dependability" that exists in nature could not exist if evolution were true. 

Great Variety of Life in the Plankton. 

            Consider now the "miracle" of the profuse and fascinating variety of life in the plankton.  The drifting animal and plant life of the oceans near the surface, that is food for ocean fish and marine animals, is called "plankton" * (from a Greek word meaning wandering).  One authority says, 

            "Any one may find in the surface waters of the sea, animals (mostly microscopic) that hold their own with those in Fairy Tales."  (The Strange World of Nature, p.19).  Some of these strange creatures "are wholly unlike any known animals from land or even fresh water" ("Strange Babies of the Sea," by Hilary B. Moore, in the July, 1952 "National Geographic").

            Included among these strange creatures are weird specimens as the transparent Salp; arrowworms (named from their shape); the trumpet-like Stentor: the unbelievable Siphonophores that lay eggs in one generation and develop plant-like buds in the next; and tiny creatures with near ghostlike and nightmarish shapes, as the thin, transparent, baby lobster, needle-nosed babies of Porcelain Crabs and a thousand and one other oddities that defy description. 

            * Plants and animals that live in the water are divided into three main groups: the plankton, the nekton and the benthos.  Plankton is the name for those forms of life that float at or near the surface.  They include a great variety of tiny animal and plants as well as larval forms of many other animals.  The Nekton, made up of creatures that swim actively, include most fish and also squids, whales, porpoises, and shrimp of many kinds.  the Benthos includes those countless animals that creep on the sand and bury themselves in the mud, hide in crevices or fasten themselves to the rocks. 

Myriads of Marvels of the Deep  

            A visit to an "undersea garden" as seen through the bottom of a glass-bottomed boat "is like a scene from fairyland, with strange-patterned fish darting about sea flowers of every description." (H. J. Shepstone). 

            "The coloring of the corals, sea flowers and other varied marine life is almost beyond description.  The coral polyps themselves are of every conceivable color — brown, violet, pink, white, yellow, purple, bright blue and vivid scarlet.  The anemones, sea cucumbers and sea urchins are also of many varied tints.  There are sponges of black and purple, covered with a thin sheen of emerald green.  And darting hither and thither are troops of fishes having color patterns which are exquisitely beautiful — tube worms with brilliantly-colored crowns of tentacles, and innumerable starfish, crabs, and crustaceans, many of them also highly colored.  Truly, a reef of living coral with its gorgeously-colored inhabitants is a sea garden, more interesting than any garden of flowering plants." 

            Let us present some more of these 

"Strange Sea Creatures"           

            (1)  The Unique Sea Horse

            "Mother nature outdid herself when she assembled the sea horse.  This bizarre creature has the arching neck and head of a stallion, the swelling bosom of a pouter pigeon, the grasping tail of a monkey and the color-changing power of a chameleon.  It has eyes that pivot independently, so that when one eye scans the surface, the other can be directed underwater.  To top this fantastic make-up the male is equipped with a kangaroo-style pouch from which the little ones are born."

            This four-inch long sea horse is the only fish that swims upright!  He has a special "gas bladder" that enables him to keep his upright position.  If this bladder is damaged and he loses even a tiny bit of the gas, he sinks to the bottom, there to lie helpless until death overtakes him or his bladder heals.

            But the most amazing feature of all is that it is the male sea-horse that "goes into labor and gives birth to its young.  This strange division of the sea-horse's reproductive functions, is the peak of this tiny fish's paradoxical make-up."

            "The female sea-horse provides the eggs.  During courtship, the female actively pursues the male, deposits her eggs in a pouch on her mate's belly, and then swims away.  In the pouch the eggs are nourished on the father's blood for 45 days. . . .after a series of parental convulsions (with apparently every muscle brought into play) the pouch is emptied and the baby sea-horses (from 300 to 600) are born!"

            Evolution is utterly at a loss to account for such unorthodox procedures, and such strange creatures.  The "Sea-horse" is in a similar category with the platypus, as far as evolution is concerned: it presents an enigma that baffles and frustrates all theories that seek to account for it!  Admit the Divine Designer, and all is accounted for. 

            (2)  The Improbable Sting Ray

            For perfection of movement, look at the ray. 

            "Among the movements of all living things in the sea the most perfectly harmonious is undoubtedly the swimming of the ray.  When this bird of the depths' beats its wings, the fleshy wings themselves undulate.  A sinuous movement takes place from back to front, being most supple at the edges, creating a movement as of frills and scallops reminiscent of the waving of a silk handkerchief, or an Egyptian dancer. . . . This improbable-looking bat-like creature, looks like a monster from another world, a demoniacal phantom in violet or dark grey, but with a pure white patch on its belly, flying silently and mysteriously through the water. . . . But when the ray comes to rest it appears to be an almost deformed-looking beast, flopped down." (The Underwater Naturalist, pp. 228, 236). 

            What Architect designed the supple movements and the perfect rhythm of this dread beast of the sea?  The co-ordination of muscles and the rhythmic movement through the water could never be achieved by the trial and error method; the grace and suppleness and perfect rhythm of the ray demand an Architect of supernatural ability, a Worker with infinite perfections. 

            (3)  The Humble Oyster: the Brainless Wonder

            In the November, 1953, "Scientific American" is an intriguing article by Pieter Korringa, on "OYSTERS."  We quote: 

            "The existence of the oyster is so different from a vertebrate's experience that even with the most unprejudiced study we find it hard to understand.  Although thousands of investigations have been made of the bivalve, its life is still mysterious.  The creature defies many elementary rules of animal biology. . . . Even anatomically we cannot make head or tail of the oyster, for it possesses neither of these organs.  Yet in spite of its lack of a brain and its seemingly poor equipment for survival the oyster deserves our boundless admiration.  It has senses (chemical and tactile) which are extremely acute, a feeding system which is extraordinarily delicate and effective, a metabolism which ministers to its needs in a highly versatile way and a bagful of other resources which enable it to survive even though it seems one of the most defenseless of creatures, a passive thing altogether at the mercy of its environment," . .

            The oyster has an intricate pumping system far more involved ("more delicate and complex)" than was previously supposed.  "With its pumping system the oyster couples a filtering system, for which it uses mucus.  Very thin sheets of mucus pass continuously over the oyster's gills.  This mucus traps food particles, and conveys them to the oysters mouth.  Both the pumping and the filtering mechanisms are sensitive to environmental conditions; the oyster does NOT feed continuously: it tests the water from time to time, and it sets its intricate feeding mechanism into operation ONLY WHEN THE QUALITY OF THE WATER MEETS CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS. . . .Its chemical receptors apparently warn it not to feed when certain organic excretions or other poisons are in the water.  And its filtering mechanism enables it to segregate from its intake and throw out organisms or particles which it presumably recognizes as inimical.

            "The manufacture of the oysters shell is an intricate, fascinating operation.  The mollusk has herds of small glands which secrete calcite . . . . It deposits the calcite on a thin network of protein, steadily enlarging and thickening the shell as it grows.  The oyster does NOT use dissolved calcium carbonate, which is rather sparse in sea water, but it captures calcium ions.  JUST HOW THE OYSTER CATCHES THOSE IONS AND POURS THEM OUT AGAIN THROUGH ITS SHELL-SECRETING GLANDS TO FORM THE CALCITE LAYER OF ITS SHELL IS UNKNOWN.

            "The oyster has to create a home of a very different shape. . . . and its construction must be right the first time, for the shell cannot be broken down or remodeled.  Investigators have been amazed to find that the oyster pads out the thick places in the shell with 'cheaper' construction — a chalky, porous deposit which requires only about one-fifth as much building material.  JUST HOW IT CONTROLS THE MAKING OF THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHELL IS HARD TO UNDERSTAND.

            "The two valves of the shell are hinged by a rubberlike elastic ligament which pushes the valves apart when the oyster does not hold them closed; the closing of the valves is controlled by a powerful central adductor muscle.  This muscle has a 'quick' part which can open or snap the valves shut very rapidly, and a 'catch' part which can keep the shells closed for a long time, apparently without getting tired. . . "  (Caps ours).  (The rest of the article by Pieter Korringa gives many more fascinating facts).

            Not the least of the achievements of the humble oyster — the Brainless Wonder — is the creation by the oyster (starting with an irritant; as a grain of sand) of a pearl — "the queen of gems."  By what legerdemain can the oyster after many months transform an irritant into a "perfect, fully formed jewel, the iridescent pearl, that never requires polishing, cutting or other artificial methods to improve its beauty?" 

            Where did this "brainless Wonder" get such wisdom?  Who taught it how to make its shell, and make it right the first time?  Who gave the oyster the secret of capturing calcium ions — and also a high concentrate of copper, zinc, iron, manganese and rare metals (in concentrations thousands of times higher than in the surrounding sea water) — and put them into an easily digestible form for man, making the oyster a rich and succulent food for man?  (Typist Note:  While God did make the oyster, He did NOT MAKE IT AS FOOD FOR MAN. Read Leviticus 11:9-12).  Who taught the oyster how to create the matchless pearl?  Surely One infinitely Higher than any intelligence on earth designed this marvel and MADE IT FOR A PURPOSE.

            As a matter of fact, we have not presented one-tenth of the "marvels" to be observed in the life history of the common oyster: the "Brainless Wonder." 

            (4)  The Incredible Dance of the Grunion

            The Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, lies at the end of a huge ocean basin, and the tidal movement is greater than anywhere else on earth:  The water rises and falls through 50 feet or more.  In Hawaii, on the other hand, the tides rise less than a foot.  These Hawaiian tides are controlled almost entirely by the sun.  The many influences that control the movement of tidal waters — the pull of the sun, the pull of the moon, the pull of both together or one against the other, storms at sea — have made theoretical predictions of tides a very intricate mathematical feat.  But trained oceanographers can predict with accuracy how tides will run in different parts of the world.

            How then can grunion (small silvery fish), without study or training, forecast the ever-changing tides?  Yet they do, and with amazing accuracy! 

            "Grunion runs" are found only off the coast of lower and southern California, beginning in March and continuing through July.  Thousands of grunion appear on the beaches to lay their eggs in the sand three or four nights after the new or full moon.  "The forecasting of the hour and minute when grunion will run is reached by adding 15 minutes to the time the tide reaches its nightly peak.  In other words, there is a margin of safety: they come ashore AFTER the turn of the tide, and on nights when the tide reaches a little less high than on the preceding night. . . . Thus the eggs are laid in sand which will NOT be reached by the tide for about two weeks.

            "The female, heavy with eggs, permits herself to be washed in by the tide and strands herself.  She energetically burrows into the sand tail first to a depth of two or three inches.  The males then, in a horizontal position, curl their bodies around the partially buried females and discharge milt which runs down along the females' bodies and fertilizes the eggs which are being laid in the sand."  The whole process lasts only about 30 seconds.  The grunion then flop back into the sea, but the eggs, deposited on a night when the tide has begun to recede will NOT be washed out until the next high tide two weeks later.  During the two weeks between the laying of the eggs and the next high tide, the eggs are incubated in the warm, damp sand.  When the next high tide erodes the beach and uncovers the eggs, the eggs hatch explosively and the new-born fry swim out into the ocean! 

            Who teaches each NEW GENERATION of grunion how to time the tides, and know when it is 15 minutes AFTER high tide, the night after the fortnightly high tide?  Who designed the grunion eggs to hatch in two weeks? and in a nest of damp sand?  Who taught the female grunion to place the nest in the exact locale where the tide will expose the eggs two weeks later?  One bows in awe before such miracles and concludes that the Creator of all so equipped the grunion with the necessary abilities that all people might have a constant recurring demonstration of DIVINE CREATION. 

            (5)  The Spectacular Swarming of the Palolo Worm

            The grunion is not alone in its uncanny time sense.  The palolo worm puts on a similar demonstration.  We refer to the Eunice viridis (palolo worm) of the South Pacific.  This worm lives in deep, cavernous hollows at the base of sunken coral reefs in the ocean waters around Samoa, Fiji and some other Pacific islands south of the equator.

            "Once each year, at a definite time, the palolo appears in myriads at the surface of the sea to perpetuate its species in a spectacular swarming.  This takes place in the early spring, exactly one week after the full moon in November (Springtime, south of the equator) and occurs with such regularity each year that 'palolo time' is the outstanding date of the native calendar. . . .

            "The worms grow to a maximum length of eighteen inches.  As November approaches the hind part of each worm, which is about three times as long as the fore part, becomes filled and distended with minute eggs in the female and sperm in the male.

            "When the moment arrives each worm crawls backwards out of its deep hole in the coral and the hind part breaks away and wriggles up to the surface.  The fore part of each worm remains in the coral and grows a new hind end which, the following November, again supplies the eggs or the sperm for the perpetuation of this strange species.

            "Almost immediately when the hind end of the palolo reaches the surface, it bursts and the eggs or sperm are fired into the water 'like an explosion.'  The empty, shrunken remains of the worm then sink down to die on the sea-bed.  The great majority of the countless millions of the palolo worms inhabiting the coral reefs in the South Pacific behave in this way once a year, in the early morning of the seventh day after the November full moon.  Burrows says, 'the palolo makes its annual rising AT AN ACTUAL DATE BY THE MOON AND THE TIDE" year after year, without change or failure.  (Animal Wonder World, pp, 153, 154). 

            Who taught the lowly Palolo worm how to discern "times and seasons?"  How can it tell when it is exactly one week after the November full moon?  And why does the new generation of palolo worms, the next year, and the next, and the next, never miss the date by even one day?  Did the Creator have the natives in mind too, when he created such a huge stock of the edible Palolo worms, that they might know when to catch them?  Whoever caused this phenomenon DESIGNED it so — and then when the pattern was set, He made it static, so that generation after generation, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO CHANGE WHATEVER IN THE PROCEDURE. 

            (6)  Fish with Built-in Dynamos

            The electric eel (Electrophorus eleotircus) is a native of the backwaters of the Amazon.  Four-fifths of the length of his stubby body contains electricity-generating tissue, which enables him to send out discharges up to 500 volts many times each minute!

            "When a piranha or other foe of the eel comes too close, Electrophorus builds an electric fence around himself by switching on his generators and charging the water in the vicinity with electricity.  With his enemies stunned by the shock, it is an easy matter for the eel to escape."

            "The current from the electric eel may be released from any part of the fish with equal intensity; it is directional, having one polarity at the head and another at the tail; the fish can regulate the amount it discharges." 

            The electric catfish has a novel way of getting its meals — even though it is somewhat revolting.  Swimming boldly up to a large fish, it slyly touches it on the stomach with a fin and gives it an electric shock — a shock that does not kill it, but causes it to disgorge any half-digested food before the stunned fish seeks to make a hasty get-away.  The catfish eats the free lunch and then looks for another victim of its practical joke. (See p. 17, "Nature Parade").

            But the champion electrician of all is the Electric Ray,  Its electric equipment is so astounding, we must quote a detailed description. 

            "The electric organs of the electric rays are exceedingly complicated and only a genius in the field of electricity could fully understand them. . . . These electric organs are a complicated wet battery.  There are about 450 special tubes in each of the organs supplying the positive and negative currents, all separated from each other by special insulating tissue.  There are many electric plates, and the wet medium (corresponding to the acid solution in a man-made wet battery) is a clear jelly.  There are special nerves going to every plate which comes from a main nerve which itself is connected to a separate section of the brain that deals solely with electricity. . . .The electric ray's 'batteries' consist of two nodes, one positive and the other negative, which have to be connected before a discharge takes place. A powerful shock is then given of a frequency as high as one hundred fifty per second.  This kills small creatures and is quite enough to knock a man flat on the ground. . . .

            :Nature, in fact rather surprisingly, has shown herself here (and in other electric fishes) to be a skilled and inventive electrician.  I say surprisingly because with most other animals she has given no hint that she knew anything much about the subject."  (The Living Sea, pp. 130, 131). 

            Can any honest, thinking persons read that description and not come to the conclusion that the God who created all things, who knows all the secrets of electricity, as well as gravity and all other natural laws, is the One who made the electric ray? 

            (7)  The Strange Case of the Fish Hatched in Father's Mouth

            In the fish world parenthood at times is more trouble to the father than the mother.  We already have spoken of the male of the sea horse that carries the eggs of the female in a pouch on its belly.  The male Tilapia macrocephala  is also an exceptionally devoted father — or shall we say he is a hen-pecked husband.  The Tilapia, about three inches long, lives in the rivers of Africa. 

            "After the female has laid the eggs and the male has fertilized them, the male picks up the eggs and carries them around in his mouth like a bunch of marbles.  He keeps them there until they hatch and the young Tilapia are large enough to fend for themselves.  During this two-week period the father cannot eat a bite, and he has to exist off his own tissue.  The family life of the Tilapia has been studied for 15 years at the Museum of Natural History in New York city by Dr. Lester R. Aronson, who also has been to Nigeria observing them in their natural habitat.

            "The female Tilapia scoops a hole in the gravel at the bottom of the river with her mouth.  She then lays eggs, about 80 of them, in this nest.  The male drops sperm on the eggs, then darts head first toward the nest, scooping up a few more eggs with each plunge, until he finally has gotten them all into his mouth.  If he overlooks a few, the female slaps him with her tail to remind him he has left a few in the nest — but this happens only rarely.  Crammed with eggs, the males mouth bulges.  The eggs hatch in about five days, but he usually keeps his youngsters in his mouth for about six days more." 

            Anyone who knows the tendency of the typical male to shun household duties can see in this nothing short of a miracle!  And all who know the male appetite can see in this a double miracle — for by what natural power was the male Tilpia ever persuaded to keep from eating for eleven days?  This is the more wonderful when one remembers that many species of fish eat not only their own eggs but also their fry as well.  Going counter to the natural tendencies of other fish, the male Tilpia performs, without remonstrance, a specialized function in the propagation of the species that MUST have been "born into it" by a Superintending Providence, and could NOT have evolved by natural processes. 

            (8)  The Mystifying, Clever Crabs

            Crabs, lobsters, oysters — all are relatively low in the scale of life — and yet the crab gives evidence of cleverness bordering on apparent intelligence.  The whole life story of the crab is unbelievable. 

            "When the egg of a crab hatches, a speck emerges that moults within an hour and turns into a tiny creature THAT BEARS NO RESEMBLANCE WHATEVER TO A CRAB.  It is only about one-twentieth of an inch long, translucent, and carries two long spears, one on the middle of its back and the other projecting in front, like a beak.  It has large eyes, set flat and NOT on the tips of stalks like those of its parents.  (This incredible fact is an insoluble riddle to all naturalists).  It swims actively.  (Most adult crabs do not swim at all).  Other moults (stages of growth) take place during which the baby crab presents an astonishing variety of COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SHAPES.  (This periodic metamorphosis is absolutely inscrutable to zoologists).  Finally, however, it loses the gift of swimming and sinks to the sea bed, still exceedingly minute, but now a replica of its parents in every way — stalked eyes, pincers, and the rest.

            "The last creature from which one would expect intelligence is a crab.  Yet if one judges by behavior, certain crabs possess considerable intelligence and cunning.  It has been said that men are the only animals to have learned to carry weapons.  The monkey may hurl a coconut from the top of a tree but it never carries a stick.  Man however was not the first creature to carry weapons; the crab had been doing this long before. . . . To what extent the crab knows what it is doing does not concern us: it does it.  It will be said that only those crabs survived that carried these weapons and so the process became automatic and instinctive.  But the many species that did NOT carry weapons also survived.  (Note the argument he gives against evolution — editor). . . .Such actions are instinctive now; it is the ORIGIN of these schemes that give rise to thought.