The Cradle of the Race 1^5 



such evidence it is concluded that the primates originated 

 in all probability, along with the carnivora or flesh 

 eaters (dogs, cats, bears, etc.), from a generalized insect- 

 eating mammal having primitive teeth, a large brain and 

 arboreal habits. The earliest fossils of primates are found 

 in the lower Eocene of Europe and of North America, 

 but the indications are that this whole branch originated 

 in Asia and migrated thence under pressure of increasing 

 cold. 



The Cradle of the Race 



We do not know where the human race first made its 

 appearance upon the earth. It is possible that the species had 

 more than one distinct origin from subhuman ancestors. 

 The fossil records tell us about relatively late humans in 

 Europe and Africa. Records of the earliest types found are 

 fragmentary and too widely scattered to warrant any con- 

 clusions. There are, however, other facts which point to 

 man's origin in central Asia. 



It was in this central plateau of Asia that the principal 

 families of mammals seem to have originated. There is evi- 

 dence of successive migrations from this region, indications 

 of waves of off -shoots from the parental stocks moving to- 

 ward the edge of the continent, across connecting bridges 

 to Africa, to Europe, and to the Pacific islands. These mi- 

 grations are indicated both by the distribution of fossil re- 

 mains and by the evidences of a succession of glacial epochs, 

 in the course of which radical climatic changes took place 

 and the forest areas were shifted. 



The distribution of present-day races suggests that the 

 migrations of ancestral human beings have followed a course 

 similar to the migrations of other families of mammals. The 

 more primitive types are farthest removed from the region 

 of supposed origin, at the ends of peninsulas, at the tips of 

 continents and on islands. This distribution is in harmony 

 both with the assumption of successive waves of off -shoots 



