Apes. 2 1 9 



Thus then, at last, we reach the goal : 

 " There was an Ape." l There " must have been? 

 or there could not have been a man. 3 The 

 exigency is urgent, and the affirmation easy. It 

 is only when we proceed to particulars that 

 difficulties present themselves. Where was this 

 Ape ? And when ? And what ? No man can 

 tell. 



Haeckel emphatically protests against the 

 notion that the modern anthropoid apes can be 

 regarded as our direct progenitors. " Our ape- 

 like ancestors," he says, " are long since extinct. 

 Perchance their fossil remains may some time 

 be found in the tertiary deposits of Southern 

 Asia or Africa. They must nevertheless be 

 ranked amongst the tailless catarhine anthro- 

 poid apes." 3 



Mr. Darwin includes Europe in the field which 

 has been so vainly searched for this missing 

 link. " It is probable," he tells us, " that Africa 

 was formerly inhabited by extinct apes, closely 

 allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee ; and as 

 these two species are now man's nearest allies, 

 it is somewhat more probable that our early 

 progenitors lived on the African continent than 



1 Vide Appendix, Note D. 



Ibid., Note E. 



1 " Natiirliche SchSpfungsgeschichte," p. 577. 



