308 HAECKEL 



He now lived under the public eye, and amusing 

 constructions were put on his movements. Ameri- 

 can journalism arrived, by its peculiar methods, at 

 the knowledge that he had gone in quest of bones 

 of the *' missing link." A few bones of a half- 

 human, half-ape form had been discovered on the 

 south coast of Java a few years previously, and the 

 trained American imagination quickly constructed 

 a theory, which as quickly crystallised into fact. 

 Haeckel had been heavily subsidised by an American 

 millionaire to discover more bones of the ape-man 

 of Java. Not to be outdone, other journals added 

 a rival subsidy (from the American Government) and 

 a rival search. The sober truth was that Haeckel 

 had used his Bressa prize fund, with a subsidy 

 from the Ritter fund at Jena, to make a study of 

 botany and marine life in the tropics. He was 

 within a hundred miles of the spot where Dubois 

 had found his interesting relics, but made no effort 

 to go further. For him the evolution of man rested 

 on too massive a foundation for a few bones to 

 increase its solidity. Once more he brought home 

 huge cases of preparations, a large number of 

 sketches (some of them touched up by Verestcha- 

 gin, who was returning on the boat from China), 

 and material for the inevitable book. Aus Insu- 

 linde is a charming and finely illustrated work of 

 travel, but has not been translated. 



Before he left Jena he had, with his charac- 

 teristic urbanity and diligence, given personal 

 replies to about a thousand letters he had received 

 apropos of his Biddle of the Universe. The episto- 



