“Their ferocity is non-existent, scientifically speaking,” replied the learned geographer.
“Now come, Paganel,” said the Major, “you’ll never make me admit the utility of wild beasts. What good are they?”
“Why, Major,” exclaimed Paganel, “for purposes of classification into orders, and families, and species, and sub-species.”
“A mighty advantage, certainly!” replied McNabbs, “I could dispense with all that. If I had been one of Noah’s companions at the time of the deluge, I should most assuredly have hindered the imprudent patriarch from putting in pairs of lions, and tigers, and panthers, and bears, and such animals, for they are as malevolent as they are useless.”
“You would have done that?” asked Paganel.
“Yes, I would.”
“Well, you would have done wrong in a zoological point of view,” returned Paganel.
“But not in a humanitarian one,” rejoined the Major.
“It is shocking!” replied Paganel. “Why, for my part, on the contrary, I should have taken special care to preserve megatheriums and pterodactyles, and all the antediluvian species of which we are unfortunately deprived by his neglect.”
“And I say,” returned McNabbs, “that Noah did a very good thing when he abandoned them to their fate—that is, if they lived in his day.”