2Q2 EVOLUTION OF TO-DAY. 



From geology there is practically no evidence 

 either for or against this view. Fossil primates of 

 all kinds are very rare, and fossil human remains are 

 rarest of all. In geological formations, which, it is 

 known, were cotemporaneous with man, there are 

 no traces of his bones. The oldest human remains 

 which have been found are certainly much more like 

 those of the apes than the man of to-day, particu- 

 larly in the shape of the skull. But these unques- 

 tionably old skulls are so few in number that it is 

 impossible to draw any conclusions from them, par- 

 ticularly when it is pointed out that even to-day 

 there are occasionally found skulls which are about 

 as low as these fossils. One point, however, geol- 

 ogy has definitely settled, and that is, that man is a 

 very old animal. Instead of existing only a few 

 thousands of years, there is positive evidence that he 

 has lived many thousands. History traces him for 

 about six thousand years, but archeology and geol- 

 ogy carry him much further. He has been traced 

 into the early quaternary times, and some would 

 think even earlier. In years it is impossible to esti- 

 mate this time. Although the tendency of recent 

 observations is to make this time less than was 

 formerly believed, it can hardly be possible that it is 

 less than twenty thousand years, and probably much 

 more. But the almost utter absence of bones either 

 of man or of primates, makes it impossible to say 

 any thing from this source as to its origin. It is un- 

 fortunate that just where this evidence is most 

 wanted it is lacking, for the absence of this connect- 

 ing link has been, and still is, one of the standard 



