THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY NATURAL SELECTION. 13 



of every climate ; spread, with trifling exceptions, over every 

 part of tlie firm earth. The family of apes, on the contrary, 

 is restricted to tropical and subtropical regions, provided 

 tliey be wooded. Yet not even in all such are they found, 

 for there are extensive well-wooded tropical regions wholly 

 destitute of them. Thus they do not exist in the Molucca 

 Islands, in the great island of New Guinea, in any of the 

 many islands of the North and South Pacific Ocean, or in 

 the tropical part of the continent of Australia. Man, then, 

 is the denizen of the whole habitable earth, and apes, his 

 imagined progenitors, only of a small and peculiar portion 

 of it. It should follow from this distribution of the two 

 parties that apes could not have been the progenitors of 

 men unless ajDes possessed the power of overcoming geogra- 

 phical obstacles insurmountable by man himself while a 

 savage or a barbarian. 



Apes vary in size from the magnitude of a marmot to that 

 of a wild boar, but no such disparity exists in the races of 

 man. The greater number of apes have long tails, and the 

 American monkeys prehensile tails, but in all the races of 

 man the termination of the spine is concealed in flesh. The 

 monkeys of Africa, Asia, and the Asiatic Islands have the 

 same number of teeth with man, but the monkeys of America 

 have four additional ones. 



Throughout all the various races of man the union of the 

 sexes is followed by a fertile hybrid off'spring, but between 

 the diflerent species of apes no union of the sexes takes place 

 at all, even where the species seem most closely allied ; so that 

 in this respect they differ more from man than several species 

 of the other lower animals, such as all dogs and some oxen. 



The brain of the apes has been deemed by anatomists to 

 make a nearer approach in form and structure to that of 

 man than the brain of any other animal. But the intellectual 

 fruits are not commensurate with this physical resemblance. 

 The ape is brisk, but fitful, artful, and prone to mischief. In 

 sober sagacity he is inferior to the dog and to the elephant; 



