60 THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 



Notwithstanding that Scripture com- 

 pares Ishmael to " a wild ass ? " theDarwinian 

 theory seems to require that the bushy tail 

 of one species of the monkey tribe should 

 be accepted in preference to the tufted tail 

 of the ass, as the property of that prehis- 

 toric ancestor from which the human race 

 is said to have sprung. 



For Mr. Darwin's trumpet gives no 

 uncertain sound, when he thus delivers his 

 testimony respecting the actual line of our 

 primeval ancestors, tracing them back to 

 as far as his theory will allow him to go. 



" The most ancient progenitors in the 

 kingdom of the vertebrata at which we 

 are able to obtain an obscure glance, appa- 

 rently consisted of a group of marine 

 animals, resembling the larvae of existing 

 ascidians. These animals probably gave 

 rise to a group of fishes, as lowly organized 

 as the lancelet; and from these the 

 ganoids and other fishes like the lepido- 

 siren, must have been developed. From 

 such fish a very small advance would carry 

 us on to the amphibians." 



