§ 41. FOSSIL MONKEYS. 259 



are almost exclusively located.* At length proofs were 

 obtained, and almost at the same time in France, India, 

 South America, and England, of the existence of this order 

 of animals during the most ancient tertiary epochs. 



The fossil remains are referable to four modifications of 

 the existing types of quadrumana. Those from France 

 belong to an animal of the Ape tribe ; those from England 

 to the Macacus; the Indian fossils to a species of the long- 

 limbed and tailed monkeys, of which the Negro monkey is 

 an example ; and the relics from South America to a gigan- 

 tic Capuchin monkey. -f 



The British specimens (Lign. 46), were found in a bed 

 of eocene sand, at Kyson or Kingston, a few miles east 

 of Woodbridge in Suffolk. ;f 



* Discours sur les Kevolutions, p. 171. 



f The quadrumana or monkeys. — These animals come nearest to 

 man in the form and proportion of their skeleton, and of their separate 

 bones; in the general disposition of their muscular system, and its 

 adaptation for a semi-erect position of the body; in their great cerebral 

 organization, the perfection and equable development of their senses ; 

 their intellectual capacity, and complicated instincts. These most 

 elevated of all inferior animals are fitted to select, obtain, and digest 

 the succulent ripe fruits of trees, and are destined to inhabit the rich 

 and shady forests of tropical climates. They leave to the squirrels and 

 the sloths the buds and leaves ; to the ponderous elephant and rhino- 

 ceros the branches and the stem ; and to the beavers, and other 

 rodentia, the hard bark of the trees. Their delicate organization is 

 adapted only for the richest products of the vegetable kingdom ; and 

 the soft and nutritious quality of their food is suitable to the broad 

 enamelled crowns of their molar teeth, which are studded with 

 rounded tubercles: their stomach is simple. With a high cerebral 

 and muscular development, corresponding with their elevated rank in 

 the scale of beings, and the position of their food, they are the most 

 agile and sportive of all mammalia ; and they are provided with pre- 

 hensile organs at every point ; their teeth, tail, feet, and hands assist 

 in their agile movements, and in their boundings from branch to 

 branch, and from tree to tree. — Dr. Grant's Lectures on Comparative 

 Anatomy. 



% See Prof. Owen's British Fossil Mammalia, and my Medals of 

 Creation, vol. ii. p. 863. 



s 2 



