18 



The Probable Region 



man's evolution from the low ground of hypothesis to the 

 elevated platform of historical fact. 



I shall now inquire what evidence, if any, we possess to lead 

 us to hope for success in the search for fossil remains demon- 

 strating the existence in past geological time of such transitional 

 links. 



The quarter from which our first ray of light comes is that of 

 the science of distribution, or the compilation of facts which proves 

 the geographical distribution, in present and past time, of the 

 order Primates to which man belongs. According to the 

 standard work of reference by Mr. A. K. Wallace, namely, his 

 " Geographical Distribution of Animals," we learn that there is 

 no evidence to show that any but the lowest families of the 

 Primates — to wit, the Lemurs, and the lowest types of monkeys, 

 were distributed to both the New and the Old World, man of 

 course excepted. It is therefore probable that these families 

 originated within the Arctic Circle so as to become easily dis- 

 tributed over both hemispheres ; for their powers of locomotion 

 are so limited, and their dependence on a warm climate where 

 fruit-trees abound is so absolute, that the distribution of these 

 animals from one hemisphere to another after they had passed 

 south of the Arctic Circle is extremely improbable, if not 

 altogether impossible. The least indispensable conditions under 

 which animals, originated in either hemisphere south of the land 

 passage between the two, could pass from one hemisphere to the 

 other, must be that they should be compelled to accommodate 

 themselves to lower temperatures, and to entirely new kinds of 

 food. There is no evidence to show that either the lemurs or the 

 lowest types of monkeys were compelled to fly northwards, and 

 so to alter their habits and constitutions, and therefore we 

 account for their existence in both hemispheres by supposing 

 them to have been originated within the Arctic Circle at a 

 period when that region was tropical. 



But while it may safely be supposed that the lowest members of 

 the Primates took origin in what is now the frigid zone, it cannot 

 be deemed at all likely that the higher types of monkeys, much 

 less the anthropoid apes, ever existed so far north. There 

 is no evidence that they ever appeared in America, while 

 they have been and still are distributed in the Old World. 

 Had the higher monkeys, or the anthropoid apes, been evolved 

 within the Arctic regions they would in all probability be found, 

 living or fossil, in the New as well as in the Old World. Until 

 any evidence is adduced that these higher families of the Pri- 

 mates were distributed to America it would be idle conjecture 

 to suppose that they originated within the Arctic Circle; and if 

 there is no evidence to show that these families took origin in 



