II78 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



too apelike, and thus rightly a distinct species {Homo neander- 

 thalensis). The magnificent Cro-Magnon type, however, with not 

 only stature and form superior to our own, but with brain as much 

 larger than ours as is ours compared to those of the humbler 

 extant races, might weU have given himself the highest specific 

 rank, had he but developed science to match his art; yet we have 

 just seen him and his fellows go down before a race organically less 

 gifted, but which had acquired the overpowering advantage of the 

 agricultural life over the hunting culture, in many ways more 

 brilliant. Here, indeed, may there not be the very origin and rise of 

 our folk-tales of victories of the dwarfs over the giants ? — for here 

 we have just been seeing Jack thus rewarded, for planting his 

 homely beanstalk; so not only surviving against the giant, but 

 winning his kingdom and palace, his treasure and daughter too; 

 and thus in various ways as a survival of the fitter. 



This long tale of our human origins is still but a faint outline; 

 but even the strictest biologist may find much to learn in further 

 study of hunters and fishers as compared with pastoral and agri- 

 cultural peoples. For this long and chequered pre-history of varieties 

 of early man and our own species, and their advances respectively 

 may throw some light upon the origins and variations he is intent 

 to understand for lower forms. 



The many acts and scenes of this long drama of origins are of 

 course being further worked out, with interesting differences for 

 each and every productive region, and so of course for interpretations 

 too. And though we have above followed the presentment current 

 in Dordogne — as still on the whole the richest and most explored, 

 and as affording the beginnings of an archaeological station for 

 students and workers — there is also much to be learned and dis- 

 covered in every country, and not least in our own isles. Not only 

 do our great museums reward study, but not a few local ones; as 

 notably those established by Pitt Rivers near Salisbury, and by 

 Harold Peake at Newbury; each linking up Neolithic and Bronze 

 Ages to the historic past. This linkage of past with present is yet 

 more vividly demonstrated in Wales, where the researches of Prof. 

 Fleure have brought out remarkable persistences of ancient types 

 in our own day, both palaeolithic and neolithic, and these not simply 

 as survivals in isolated regions, but also widely recognisable through- 

 out our modern populations. Such identifications of types supposed 

 long vanished are being made at many points, in fact as part of a 

 general revision of the migrations, settlements, and minglings of 

 European peoples. This, indeed, is going so far as to be shaking — 

 some even say shaking down — their stiU popular notions of racial 

 purity, e.g. "Teutonic", "Anglo-Saxon", "Celtic", and so on; and 

 with advances towards better understanding — let us even hope in 

 every sense of that phrase. 



