IV 

 THE COMING OF SAVAGE MAN 



SAYS Lull of modernized or now existing mammals: 

 " They are all creatures of high potentiality, and, 

 where they became extinct, were rather the victims of 

 circumstance than creatures which died bcause of lack of 

 adaptability: although certain groups seem to have run a 

 natural course and their extinction was heralded by evidences 

 of racial senility." 



" As the archaic forms were characterized by lack of pro- 

 gressive brain and teeth and feet, so the modernized races 

 were distinguished by the possession sometimes of one (pri- 

 mates), sometimes of two (elephants), again by all three 

 (horses) of these destiny controlling organs, but in general 

 the modernized animals were progressive, highly adaptable 

 forms. ^ We might say they were " educable." 



They seem to have originated in a circumpolar region which 

 in early Cretaceous days enjoyed a warm, equable climate. 

 The flora of the coast of Greenland was subtropical, and a 

 temperature like that of Cuba to-day spread over Spitzbergen 

 and Alaska also. Through early Cenozoic or Tertiary time 

 there was a gradual cooling of climate and corresponding 

 southward migration of higher plants and mammals. 



Among these were our primates of whom Lull says : " It 

 is only in the brain and such correlated modifications as men- 

 tal development entails that the primates may justly lay claim 

 to superiority, for in other respects they are as humble and gen- 

 eralized a group, with very few exceptions, as the mammalian 

 class contains." ^ 



1 H. 560. 

 2 H : 642. 



4t 



