FOSSIL MAN. 635 



The argument for the Russian locality is known as Latham's 

 Sarmatian hypothesis. It takes for a starting point the position 

 that one important prerequisite for the development of the Aryan 

 race was that in its nascent stages at least it should be kept pure. 

 It is well known to geologists that at a not very remote period 

 Europe and Asia Minor were continuous across the Bosporus, the 

 barrier being about two hundred feet above the sea. Going east 

 from this point we encounter the Black Sea, at present on a level 

 with the Mediterranean ; the Caspian, eighty-five feet above ; and 

 the Aral, one hundred and fifty-seven feet above. Therefore, at 

 the time that Europe and Asia Minor were continuous, all this 

 area represented by the above-mentioned seas and the intervening 

 land was one vast sheet of water, which in connection with the 

 mountain ranges would effectually bar the progress of a non- 

 maritime people, thus preserving it from contamination with 

 other races and at the same time leaving it a vast area in which 

 to develop. If the Aryan race existed at this time, this was no 

 doubt an ideal place for its development. Moreover, the wide 

 area covered gave room for considerable differentiation in lan- 

 guage before it began to spread over India and the rest of Eu- 

 rope, as many dialects must have prevailed, with considerable 

 difference between those of the central tribes and those of the 

 periphery. 



When by the erosion of the Bosporus the land was drained 

 and assumed its present condition, the race is supposed to have 

 spread in all directions. This spreading from a central point 

 appears, in view of the great diversity of the Aryan languages, 

 yet all with an Aryan root, as more reasonable than the hypothe- 

 ses, like that of the Caucasian region, which necessitate their 

 spreading in successive migratory waves. 



As to the origin of the Aryan race all is as yet speculation. 

 On this point the Uhlans have the field. That there was a race 

 or a people speaking the root tongue of all the Indo-European 

 tongues is beyond dispute, but that all the Indo-European people 

 speaking the so-called Aryan languages are of this race is not so 

 clear. Whatever the truth may be as to the original seat of the 

 Aryan race and as to its origin, they seem to be a distinct people 

 and not to have developed from fossil or palaeolithic man, as we 

 know him, unless perhaps Pruner Bey's idea (alluded to before) 

 may prove to be true, viz., that the Furfooz man developed into 

 a so-called Mongoloid race, and the Aryans are a division of this 

 race. 



We have seen in some of the abodes of fossil men described 

 that there was evidence that they had mixed and acquired some 

 of the customs of another, more advanced, so-called neolithic race. 

 These neolithic men may have been and possibly were the pio- 



