EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES 170 



he may resemble both in certain respects ; he is a prod- 

 duct of natural evolution, accomplished in this case by 

 an amalgamation of two contrasted types. When we 

 speak of the American people, we must realize that it too 

 has come into existence as such, and even, indeed, that 

 it is in the actual process of evolution at the present 

 time. The various foreign elements that have been 

 added during the last few decades by the hundreds of 

 thousands are becoming merged with the people who 

 preceded them, just as the Dutch and the French and 

 the English coalesced during the days of early settlement 

 to form the young American nation. Perhaps most of 

 us call ourselves Anglo-Saxon, but we arc in reality some- 

 what different even in physical respects from the Eng- 

 lishmen of Queen Elizabeth's time, who alone deserved 

 the name Anglo-Saxon. This very term indicates an 

 evolution of a type that differs from both the Angles 

 and the early Saxons of King Alfred's age. These are 

 simple examples which illustrate many features of the 

 universal history of human races wherever they are to 

 be found. Even in the comparatively peaceful times 

 of our modern era the history of any race is a veritable 

 turmoil of constant changes ; conquerors impress their 

 characters upon the vanquished, while the victors often 

 adopt some of the features of the conquered. Colonies 

 split off from the mother nation to follow out their 

 destinies under other conditions. Nowhere does the 

 naturalist find evidence of long-established permanence, 

 or an unent wined course of an uninterrupted and un- 

 modified line of racial descent. 



It is the task of the student of human evolution to 

 unravel the tangled threads of human histories. The 



