192 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Part X. 



Hylobates, existed in Europe during the Upper Miocene 

 period ; and since so remote a period the earth has cer- 

 tainly undergone many great revolutions, and there has 

 been ample time for migration on the largest scale. 



At the period and place, whenever and wherever it 

 may have been, when man first lost his hairy covering, ho 

 probably inhabited a hot country ; and this would have 

 been favorable for a frugiferous diet, on which, judging 

 from analogy, he subsisted. We are far from knowing 

 how long ago it was when man first diverged from the 

 Catarhine stock ; but this may have occurred at an epoch 

 as remote as the Eocene period ; for the higher apes had 

 diverged from the lower apes as early as the Upper Mio- 

 cene period, as shown by the existence of the Dryopithe- 

 cus. We are also quite ignorant at how rapid a rate or- 

 ganisms, whether high or low in the scale, may under 

 favorable circumstances be modified : we know, however, 

 that some have retained the same form during an enor- 

 mous lapse of time. From what we see going on under 

 domestication, we learn that within the same period some 

 of the co-descendants of the same species may be not at 

 all changed, some a little, and some greatly changed. 

 Thus it may have been with man, who has undergone a 

 great amount of modification in certain characters in com- 

 parison with the higher apes. 



The great break in the organic chain between man and 

 his nearest allies, which cannot be bridged over by any 

 extinct or living species, has often been advanced as a 

 grave objection to the belief that man is descended from 

 some lower form ; but this objection will not appear of 

 much weight to those who, convinced by general reasons, 

 believe in the general principle of evolution. Breaks in- 

 cessantly occur in all parts of the series, some being wide, 

 sharp, and defined, others less so in various degrees ; as 

 between the orang and its nearest allies — between the 



