birds

63:2.5But the au­tumn sun was get­ting lower in the sky, and as they jour­neyed north­ward, the nights grew cooler and cooler. Al­ready they had been forced to make use of an­i­mal skins for warmth. Be­fore they had been away from home one moon, An­don sig­ni­fied to his mate that he thought he could make fire with the flint. They tried for two months to uti­lize the flint spark for kin­dling a fire but only met with fail­ure. Each day this cou­ple would strike the flints and en­deavor to ig­nite the wood. Fi­nally, one evening about the time of the set­ting of the sun, the se­cret of the tech­nique was un­rav­eled when it oc­curred to Fonta to climb a near-by tree to se­cure an aban­doned bird’s nest. The nest was dry and highly in­flammable and con­se­quently flared right up into a full blaze the mo­ment the spark fell upon it. They were so sur­prised and star­tled at their suc­cess that they al­most lost the fire, but they saved it by the ad­di­tion of suit­able fuel, and then be­gan the first search for fire­wood by the par­ents of all man­kind.

63:2.6This was one of the most joy­ous mo­ments in their short but event­ful lives. All night long they sat up watch­ing their fire burn, vaguely re­al­iz­ing that they had made a dis­cov­ery which would make it pos­si­ble for them to defy cli­mate and thus for­ever to be in­de­pen­dent of their an­i­mal rel­a­tives of the south­ern lands. Af­ter three days’ rest and en­joy­ment of the fire, they jour­neyed on.

63:2.7The Pri­mates an­ces­tors of An­don had of­ten re­plen­ished fire which had been kin­dled by light­ning, but never be­fore had the crea­tures of earth pos­sessed a method of start­ing fire at will. But it was a long time be­fore the twins learned that dry moss and other ma­te­ri­als would kin­dle fire just as well as birds’ nests.

88:1.5When an­i­mals be­came fe­tishes, there en­sued the taboos on eat­ing the flesh of the fe­tish an­i­mal. Apes and mon­keys, be­cause of re­sem­blance to man, early be­came fe­tish an­i­mals; later, snakes, birds, and swine were also sim­i­larly re­garded. At one time the cow was a fe­tish, the milk be­ing taboo while the exc­reta were highly es­teemed. The ser­pent was revered in Pales­tine, es­pe­cially by the Phoeni­cians, who, along with the Jews, con­sid­ered it to be the mouth­piece of evil spir­its. Even many mod­erns be­lieve in the charm pow­ers of rep­tiles. From Ara­bia on through In­dia to the snake dance of the Mo­qui tribe of red men the ser­pent has been revered.

60:3.1The great Cre­ta­ceous pe­riod de­rives its name from the pre­dom­i­nance of the pro­lific chalk-mak­ing foraminifers in the seas. This pe­riod brings Uran­tia to near the end of the long rep­til­ian dom­i­nance and wit­nesses the ap­pear­ance of flow­er­ing plants and bird life on land. These are also the times of the ter­mi­na­tion of the west­ward and south­ward drift of the con­ti­nents, ac­com­pa­nied by tremen­dous crustal de­for­ma­tions and con­comi­tant wide­spread lava flows and great vol­canic ac­tiv­i­ties.

60:3.2Near the close of the pre­ced­ing ge­o­logic pe­riod much of the con­ti­nen­tal land was up above wa­ter, al­though as yet there were no moun­tain peaks. But as the con­ti­nen­tal land drift con­tin­ued, it met with the first great ob­struc­tion on the deep floor of the Pa­cific. This con­tention of ge­o­logic forces gave im­pe­tus to the for­ma­tion of the whole vast north and south moun­tain range ex­tend­ing from Alaska down through Mex­ico to Cape Horn.

60:3.3This pe­riod thus be­comes the mod­ern moun­tain-build­ing stage of ge­o­logic his­tory. Prior to this time there were few moun­tain peaks, merely el­e­vated land ridges of great width. Now the Pa­cific coast range was be­gin­ning to el­e­vate, but it was lo­cated seven hun­dred miles west of the pres­ent shore line. The Sier­ras were be­gin­ning to form, their gold-bear­ing quartz strata be­ing the prod­uct of lava flows of this epoch. In the east­ern part of North Amer­ica, At­lantic sea pres­sure was also work­ing to cause land el­e­va­tion.

60:3.4100,000,000 years ago the North Amer­i­can con­ti­nent and a part of Eu­rope were well above wa­ter. The warp­ing of the Amer­i­can con­ti­nents con­tin­ued, re­sult­ing in the meta­mor­phos­ing of the South Amer­i­can An­des and in the grad­ual el­e­va­tion of the west­ern plains of North Amer­ica. Most of Mex­ico sank be­neath the sea, and the south­ern At­lantic en­croached on the east­ern coast of South Amer­ica, even­tu­ally reach­ing the pres­ent shore line. The At­lantic and In­dian Oceans were then about as they are to­day.

60:3.595,000,000 years ago the Amer­i­can and Eu­ro­pean land masses again be­gan to sink. The south­ern seas com­menced the in­va­sion of North Amer­ica and grad­u­ally ex­tended north­ward to con­nect with the Arc­tic Ocean, con­sti­tut­ing the sec­ond great­est sub­mer­gence of the con­ti­nent. When this sea fi­nally with­drew, it left the con­ti­nent about as it now is. Be­fore this great sub­mer­gence be­gan, the east­ern Ap­palachian high­lands had been al­most com­pletely worn down to the wa­ter’s level. The many col­ored lay­ers of pure clay now used for the man­u­fac­ture of earth­en­ware were laid down over the At­lantic coast re­gions dur­ing this age, their av­er­age thick­ness be­ing about 2,000 feet.

60:3.6Great vol­canic ac­tions oc­curred south of the Alps and along the line of the pres­ent Cal­i­for­nia coast-range moun­tains. The great­est crustal de­for­ma­tions in mil­lions upon mil­lions of years took place in Mex­ico. Great changes also oc­curred in Eu­rope, Rus­sia, Japan, and south­ern South Amer­ica. The cli­mate be­came in­creas­ingly di­ver­si­fied.

60:3.790,000,000 years ago the an­giosperms emerged from these early Cre­ta­ceous seas and soon over­ran the con­ti­nents. These land plants sud­denly ap­peared along with fig trees, mag­no­lias, and tulip trees. Soon af­ter this time fig trees, bread­fruit trees, and palms over­spread Eu­rope and the west­ern plains of North Amer­ica. No new land an­i­mals ap­peared.

60:3.885,000,000 years ago the Bering Strait closed, shut­ting off the cool­ing wa­ters of the north­ern seas. Thereto­fore the ma­rine life of the At­lantic-Gulf wa­ters and that of the Pa­cific Ocean had dif­fered greatly, ow­ing to the tem­per­a­ture vari­a­tions of these two bod­ies of wa­ter, which now be­came uni­form.

60:3.9The de­posits of chalk and green­sand marl give name to this pe­riod. The sed­i­men­ta­tions of these times are var­ie­gated, con­sist­ing of chalk, shale, sand­stone, and small amounts of lime­stone, to­gether with in­fe­rior coal or lig­nite, and in many re­gions they con­tain oil. These lay­ers vary in thick­ness from 200 feet in some places to 10,000 feet in west­ern North Amer­ica and nu­mer­ous Eu­ro­pean lo­cal­i­ties. Along the east­ern bor­ders of the Rocky Moun­tains these de­posits may be ob­served in the up­tilted foothills.

60:3.10All over the world these strata are per­me­ated with chalk, and these lay­ers of porous semirock pick up wa­ter at up­turned out­crops and con­vey it down­ward to fur­nish the wa­ter sup­ply of much of the earth’s pres­ent arid re­gions.

60:3.1180,000,000 years ago great dis­tur­bances oc­curred in the earth’s crust. The west­ern ad­vance of the con­ti­nen­tal drift was com­ing to a stand­still, and the enor­mous en­ergy of the slug­gish mo­men­tum of the hin­ter con­ti­nen­tal mass up­crum­pled the Pa­cific shore line of both North and South Amer­ica and ini­ti­ated pro­found reper­cus­sional changes along the Pa­cific shores of Asia. This cir­cum­pa­cific land el­e­va­tion, which cul­mi­nated in pres­ent-day moun­tain ranges, is more than twenty-five thou­sand miles long. And the up­heavals at­ten­dant upon its birth were the great­est sur­face dis­tor­tions to take place since life ap­peared on Uran­tia. The lava flows, both above and be­low ground, were ex­ten­sive and wide­spread.

60:3.1275,000,000 years ago marks the end of the con­ti­nen­tal drift. From Alaska to Cape Horn the long Pa­cific coast moun­tain ranges were com­pleted, but there were as yet few peaks.

60:3.13The back­thrust of the halted con­ti­nen­tal drift con­tin­ued the el­e­va­tion of the west­ern plains of North Amer­ica, while in the east the worn-down Ap­palachian Moun­tains of the At­lantic coast re­gion were pro­jected straight up, with lit­tle or no tilt­ing.

60:3.1470,000,000 years ago the crustal dis­tor­tions con­nected with the max­i­mum el­e­va­tion of the Rocky Moun­tain re­gion took place. A large seg­ment of rock was over­thrust fif­teen miles at the sur­face in British Columbia; here the Cam­brian rocks are obliquely thrust out over the Cre­ta­ceous lay­ers. On the east­ern slope of the Rocky Moun­tains, near the Cana­dian bor­der, there was an­other spec­tac­u­lar over­thrust; here may be found the pre­life stone lay­ers shoved out over the then re­cent Cre­ta­ceous de­posits.

60:3.15This was an age of vol­canic ac­tiv­ity all over the world, giv­ing rise to nu­mer­ous small iso­lated vol­canic cones. Sub­ma­rine vol­ca­noes broke out in the sub­merged Hi­malayan re­gion. Much of the rest of Asia, in­clud­ing Siberia, was also still un­der wa­ter.

60:3.1665,000,000 years ago there oc­curred one of the great­est lava flows of all time. The de­po­si­tion lay­ers of these and pre­ced­ing lava flows are to be found all over the Amer­i­cas, North and South Africa, Aus­tralia, and parts of Eu­rope.

60:3.17The land an­i­mals were lit­tle changed, but be­cause of greater con­ti­nen­tal emer­gence, es­pe­cially in North Amer­ica, they rapidly mul­ti­plied. North Amer­ica was the great field of the land-an­i­mal evo­lu­tion of these times, most of Eu­rope be­ing un­der wa­ter.

60:3.18The cli­mate was still warm and uni­form. The arc­tic re­gions were en­joy­ing weather much like that of the pres­ent cli­mate in cen­tral and south­ern North Amer­ica.

60:3.19Great plant-life evo­lu­tion was tak­ing place. Among the land plants the angio­sperms pre­dom­i­nated, and many pres­ent-day trees first ap­peared, in­clud­ing beech, birch, oak, wal­nut, sycamore, maple, and mod­ern palms. Fruits, grasses, and ce­re­als were abun­dant, and these seed-bear­ing grasses and trees were to the plant world what the an­ces­tors of man were to the an­i­mal world—they were sec­ond in evo­lu­tion­ary im­por­tance only to the ap­pear­ance of man him­self. Sud­denly and with­out pre­vi­ous gra­da­tion, the great fam­ily of flow­er­ing plants mu­tated. And this new flora soon over­spread the en­tire world.

60:3.2060,000,000 years ago, though the land rep­tiles were on the de­cline, the di­no­saurs con­tin­ued as monar­chs of the land, the lead now be­ing taken by the more ag­ile and ac­tive types of the smaller leap­ing kan­ga­roo va­ri­eties of the car­niv­o­rous di­no­saurs. But some­time pre­vi­ously there had ap­peared new types of the her­biv­o­rous di­no­saurs, whose rapid in­crease was due to the ap­pear­ance of the grass fam­ily of land plants. One of these new grass-eat­ing di­no­saurs was a true quadruped hav­ing two horns and a cape­like shoul­der flange. The land type of tur­tle, twenty feet across, ap­peared as did also the mod­ern croc­o­dile and true snakes of the mod­ern type. Great changes were also oc­cur­ring among the fishes and other forms of ma­rine life.

60:3.21The wad­ing and swim­ming pre­birds of ear­lier ages had not been a suc­cess in the air, nor had the fly­ing di­no­saurs. They were a short-lived species, soon be­com­ing ex­tinct. They, too, were sub­ject to the di­no­saur doom, de­struc­tion, be­cause of hav­ing too lit­tle brain sub­stance in com­par­i­son with body size. This sec­ond at­tempt to pro­duce an­i­mals that could nav­i­gate the at­mo­sphere failed, as did the abortive at­tempt to pro­duce mam­mals dur­ing this and a pre­ced­ing age.

60:3.2255,000,000 years ago the evo­lu­tion­ary march was marked by the sud­den ap­pear­ance of the first of the true birds, a small pi­geon­like crea­ture which was the an­ces­tor of all bird life. This was the third type of fly­ing crea­ture to ap­pear on earth, and it sprang di­rectly from the rep­til­ian group, not from the con­tem­po­rary fly­ing di­no­saurs nor from the ear­lier types of toothed land birds. And so this be­comes known as the age of birds as well as the de­clin­ing age of rep­tiles.

65:2.8The frogs gave rise to the Rep­tilia, a great an­i­mal fam­ily which is vir­tu­ally ex­tinct, but which, be­fore pass­ing out of ex­is­tence, gave ori­gin to the whole bird fam­ily and the nu­mer­ous or­ders of mam­mals.

65:2.9Prob­a­bly the great­est sin­gle leap of all pre­hu­man evo­lu­tion was ex­e­cuted when the rep­tile be­came a bird. The bird types of to­day—ea­gles, ducks, pi­geons, and os­triches—all de­scended from the enor­mous rep­tiles of long, long ago.

65:2.10The king­dom of rep­tiles, de­scended from the frog fam­ily, is to­day rep­re­sented by four sur­viv­ing di­vi­sions: two non­pro­gres­sive, snakes and lizards, to­gether with their cousins, al­li­ga­tors and tur­tles; one par­tially pro­gres­sive, the bird fam­ily, and the fourth, the an­ces­tors of mam­mals and the di­rect line of de­scent of the hu­man species. But though long de­parted, the mas­sive­ness of the pass­ing Rep­tilia found echo in the ele­phant and mastodon, while their pe­cu­liar forms were per­pet­u­ated in the leap­ing kan­ga­roos.

81:2.12The And­ites of Tur­kes­tan were the first peo­ples to ex­ten­sively do­mes­ti­cate the horse, and this is an­other rea­son why their cul­ture was for so long pre­dom­i­nant. By 5000 B.C. the Mes­o­po­ta­mian, Tur­kes­tan, and Chi­nese farm­ers had be­gun the rais­ing of sheep, goats, cows, camels, horses, fowls, and ele­phants. They em­ployed as beasts of bur­den the ox, camel, horse, and yak. Man was him­self at one time the beast of bur­den. One ruler of the blue race once had one hun­dred thou­sand men in his colony of bur­den bear­ers.

60:2.12Soon af­ter two species of di­no­saurs mi­grated to the wa­ter in a fu­tile at­tempt at self-preser­va­tion, two other types were driven to the air by the bit­ter com­pe­ti­tion of life on land. But these fly­ing pterosaurs were not the an­ces­tors of the true birds of sub­se­quent ages. They evolved from the hol­low-boned leap­ing di­no­saurs, and their wings were of bat­like for­ma­tion with a spread of twenty to twenty-five feet. These an­cient fly­ing rep­tiles grew to be ten feet long, and they had sep­a­ra­ble jaws much like those of mod­ern snakes. For a time these fly­ing rep­tiles ap­peared to be a suc­cess, but they failed to evolve along lines which would en­able them to sur­vive as air nav­i­ga­tors. They rep­re­sent the non­sur­viv­ing strains of bird an­ces­try.

85:3.4The wor­ship of in­sects and other an­i­mals was pro­moted by a later mis­in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the golden rule—do­ing to oth­ers (ev­ery form of life) as you would be done by. The an­cients once be­lieved that all winds were pro­duced by the wings of birds and there­fore both feared and wor­shiped all winged crea­tures. The early Nordics thought that eclipses were caused by a wolf that de­voured a por­tion of the sun or moon. The Hin­dus of­ten show Vishnu with a horse’s head. Many times an an­i­mal sym­bol stands for a for­got­ten god or a van­ished cult. Early in evo­lu­tion­ary re­li­gion the lamb be­came the typ­i­cal sac­ri­fi­cial an­i­mal and the dove the sym­bol of peace and love.

46:2.4The trans­porta­tion sys­tem is al­lied with the cir­cu­la­tory streams of en­ergy move­ment, these main en­ergy cur­rents be­ing lo­cated at ten-mile in­ter­vals. By ad­just­ment of phys­i­cal mech­a­nisms the ma­te­rial be­ings of the planet can pro­ceed at a pace vary­ing from two to five hun­dred miles per hour. The trans­port birds fly at about one hun­dred miles an hour. The air mech­a­nisms of the Ma­te­rial Sons travel around five hun­dred miles per hour. Ma­te­rial and early mor­ontia be­ings must uti­lize these me­chan­i­cal means of trans­port, but spirit per­son­al­i­ties pro­ceed by li­ai­son with the su­pe­rior forces and spirit sources of en­ergy.