﻿PRESENT PERIOD 215 



dwellers in Europe, Asia, and both continents of the new 

 world, are to-day found only in isolated districts of Central 

 and South America, and the Malayan countries. Horses 

 in a wild state exist only on the arid plains of Central Asia, 

 and are rapidly approaching extinction. Zebras, resentful 

 of domestication, lead precarious lives in parts of Africa. 

 The closely allied Quagga has recently become extinct. Wild 

 asses have sought safety in sandy deserts, or amid mountain 

 snows, in Africa and Asia. Lions, leopards, and other 

 ferocious carnivores are being rapidly exterminated ; and a 

 like fate is overtaking the innocuous giraffe. Man-like apes 

 at the present time possess very limited territories, and are 

 ending their days in strict retirement. Orangs and chim- 

 panzees flourished in India, and probably in many other parts 

 of Asia, in Pliocene times. The former are now found only 

 on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra ; and chimpanzees 

 are restricted to equatorial forests in Africa. Gibbons alone 

 survive in south-eastern Asia. Gorillas — the most man-like 

 of the apes — have found a last retreat on the west coast 

 of Africa in French Congo territory. 



Man meanwhile has made a wonderful progress. Master of 

 brute-life, he has also acquired no small control over the 

 blind forces that pervade the universe ; and in various other 

 ways he has travelled far from a purely animal condition. 

 It cannot, however, yet be said that he has gained complete 

 mastery of the brute passions and impulses which he has 

 inherited from a remote past. The achievement of this, so far 

 as can be seen, is an immediate purpose in his further evolu- 

 tion. 



