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amused and they faintly resented the efforts of the guides to stir their intelligent interest. One or two, perhaps, studied the cases with real appreciation.
    But if the adults were superficial the same could not be said of the children. Every day saw teachers bringing their classes for a practical demonstration of the planet's prehistoric condition. Even now Magon, a biology teacher in one of Takon's leading schools, was having difficulty restraining his twenty pupils for the arrival of a guide. He had marshalled them beside the entrance and, to keep them from straying, was talking of the Valley of Dur.
    "The condition of the Valley was purely fortuitous and it is unique here upon Venus," he said. "Nothing remotely resembling it has been found, and it is the opinion of the experts that nothing like it exists anywhere else. This exhibition you are going to see is neither a museum nor a zoo, yet it is both...
    His pupils only half attended. They were fidgeting, casting expectant glances down the row of cage fronts, craning to see over one another's backs, the more excitable among them occasionally rising on their hind legs for a better view. The passing Takonian citizens regarded their youthful enthusiasm with a mild amusement. Magon smoothed back the silver fur on his head with one hand and continued to talk.
    "The creatures you will see belong to all ages of our world. Some are so old that they roamed Venus long before our race appeared. Others are more recent, contemporaries of those ancestors of ours who, in a terrible world, were for ever scuttling to cover as fast as their six legs would carry them...
    "Six legs, sir?" asked a surprised voice.
    Some of the youths in the group sniggered but Magon explained considerately.
    "Yes, Sadul, six legs. Did you not know that our remote ancestors used all six of their limbs to get them along? It took them many thousands of years to turn themselves into quadrupeds but until they did that no progress was possible. The forelimbs could not develop such sensitive hands as ours until they were carried clear of the ground...
    "Our ancestors were animals, sir?.
    "Well—er—something very much like that." Magon lowered his voice in order that the ears of passing citizens might not be offended. "But once they got their forelegs off the ground, released from the necessity of carrying their weight, the great change began. We were on the upward climb—and since then we've never stopped climbing...
    He looked around the circle of eagereyed, silverfurred faces about him. His eyes dwelt a moment on the slender tentacles which had developed from stubby toes on the forefeet. There was something magical in evolution, something glorious in the fact that he and his race were the crown of progress.
    It was a very wonderful thing to have done, to have changed from shaggy sixfooted beasts to creatures who stood proudly upon four, the whole front part of the body raised to the perpendicular to support heads which looked out proudly and unashamed at the world.
    Admittedly several of his class appeared to have neglected their coats in a way which was scarcely a credit to the race— their silver fur was muddied and rumpled—but then boys will be boys. No doubt they would trim and brush better as they grew older.
    "The Valley of Dur—" he began again but at that moment the guide arrived.
    "The party from the school, sir?.
    "Yes...
    "This way, please. Do they understand about the Valley, sir?" he added.
    "Most of them," Magon admitted. "But it might be as well—.
    "Certainly...
    The guide broke into a highspeed recitation which he had evidently made many times before.
    "The Valley of Dur may be called a unique phenomenon. At some remote date in the planet's history certain internal gases combined in a way yet imperfectly understood and issued forth through cracks in the crust at this place, and this place only...
    "The mixture had two properties. It not only anaesthetized but it also preserved