MAMMALS. 417 



hair upon the body, it being best developed in those places where it is most 

 sparse in the allied forms. 



Man presents certain features in which he resembles more closely each 

 of the anthropomorphous apes, while in others he differs from them all, so 

 that it is difficult to say which is his nearer relative. Of the genus Homo 

 there is, according to accepted tests, but a single species ; but the question 

 of arrangement of the races affords far more difficulties. For all such discus- 

 sions reference must be made to the works on anthropology. The age of 

 man on the earth is another question which can only be alluded to here. 

 That man has been here far longer than the seven or eight thousand years 

 of history is now beyond a doubt. His remains and his handiwork date back 

 to a time far before any records or any traditions ; to a time when the mam- 

 moth was alive, and when England and continental Europe had a fauna 

 recalling those of the tropics to-day ; when the mastodon, Glyptodon, and 

 Megatherium ranged in South America. But when we attempt to pass back 

 of the pleistocene the evidence is scanty, and not beyond question. The 

 skull of Calaveras and the ' Pithecanthropus erectus ' of Java, like the miocene 

 flint chips of Thenay, need more evidence in their support before they can 

 be accepted as proving the existence of man in tertiary time, no matter how 

 probable such existence may be upon a priori grounds. 



