THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 61 



These amphibians, Darwin supposes, 

 gradually developed themselves into rep- 

 tiles, birds and mammals, so that he 

 judiciously tells you that no one can at 

 present say ly what line of descent these 

 three higher and related classes sprang 

 from the amphibians, and then he proceeds 

 swimmingly as follows: 



" Birds and reptiles were once intimately 

 connected together, and the monotremata, 

 now, in a slight degree, connect mammals with 

 reptiles. In the class of mammals the steps 

 are not difficult to conceive, which led from 

 the ancient monotremata to the ancient 

 marsupials, and from these to the early 

 progenitors of the placental animals. We 

 may thus ascend to the lemuridse, and the 

 interval is not wide from these to the 

 simiadse. The simiadse then branches off 

 into two great stems, the New World and the 

 Old-World Monkeys, and from the latter, at 

 a remote period, man, the wonder and glory 

 of the universe, proceeded. ... IF a single 

 link in this chain had jiever existed, man 

 would not have been what he now is. 



