118 E. HUYSHE WALKEY, ESQ.^ ON 



a more direct interest in the evolution of man, than is felt 

 by any other branch of science. 



So far as we at present knoAv, it seems to give no 

 uncertain answer to the problem ; nothing less, in short, 

 than a complete negation of the evolutionist theory. 

 Whether the embryo of a man resembles most the embryo 

 of a carnivora, a lemuroid, or a marsupial, or whether it 

 resembles any of them at all, is nothing to the archaeologist. 

 The question resolves itself into the simple form : — Is there 

 any reason to suppose that there ever existed a race of 

 Ijeings, standing half way between that of man and that of 

 the great anthropoid apes? if so, has that race left any 

 implements or other trace of its existence ? and was primitive 

 man any nearer to such a race than the man of the present 

 date is ? 



The greatest difficulty lies in answering the first part of 

 this question, and I shall therefore take it first and devote 

 more attention to it than to the second part. First, then, 

 if there ever existed a great, semi-simian, semi-human race, 

 would it have left remains other than its bones? The 

 answer to this question appears to me to be in the affirma- 

 tive. Our knowledge of how far advanced the chimpanzee 

 and other great apes are, entitles us to expect that such a race 

 would have arrived at the knowledge of the use of the simpler 

 forms of implements, and probably also of the knowledge of 

 fire ; also it should be carnivorous. Thus, we may fairly 

 expect to find traces of this race associated with rude imple- 

 ments and traces of fire, in the deposits immediately pre- 

 ceding those in which the earliest remains of man are 

 found. I do not think 1 am exceeding the limits of positive 

 discovery in saying that absolutely no formation containing 

 such remains is known to exist. Frequently, in conjunction 

 Avith beds bearing relics of Palaeolithic man, we find an 

 underlying layer devoid of human relics, yet containing 

 those of mammalia co-existent with him at a later period. 

 Sometimes the remains of man occur only near the surface 

 of a bed, while those of the co-existent mammalia occur 

 equally throughout its entire thickness, showing that man 

 had not appeared at that spot until late in the period of the 

 bed's formation. But nowhere do we find the traces of a 

 pre-existing semi-human race. No portion of a skeleton, 

 such as might be ascribed to an animal of this nature, 

 is present either preceding or co-temporary with. Paleeo- 

 lithic man. 



