BLAKE — FOSSIL MOI^KEYS. 



83 



that tbey are zoologically inferior to the true monkey's, and conse- 

 quently more likely to have existed previously to them. 



The fossil monkeys of the New World are all of one geological 

 age, the later pliocene. They are, moreover, analogous to the existing 

 Platyrrhine monkeys of Brazil, thus proving that the physiological 

 division of true monkeys into Catarrhine and Platyrrhine existed so 

 long ago as the Pliocene age. We jSnd no Platyrrhine monkeys in 

 the Old ; no Catarrhine in the New W orld. The Frotopithecus 

 BrasUiensis discovered by Dr. Lund in limestone caverns in Brazil, 

 offers the nearest analogy to the howler monkeys {Mycetes) which 

 are still found in the same locality. The Sapajou (Cehtis macrogna- 

 thiis), the Sagouin {CcdUflirix primcevus), and the little Ouistiti 

 {Jacchus grandis), are all Brazilian forms. No Transmutationist will 

 assert tlie probable, or even possible, derivation of xlmerican types of 

 men from the Platyrrliine monkeys. 



Turning to the Old World, the earliest and one of the most inter- 

 esting forms of fossil monkey has been discovered in the Eocene sand, 

 at Kyson in Suffolk. It is the Eopitliecus Colcliesteri of Owen. Its 

 nearest living analogue, the Macacus rhesus, is found on the banks of 

 the Ganges. The Macacine form of monkey reappears in the pliocene 

 beds at Grays, Essex, again reproducing a Bengal form, the Bonnet 

 Chinois monkey {Macacus Sinicus). The older pliocene or newer 

 miocene beds of the Sewalik, or Sub-Himalayan range, produce two 

 species of Semnopitliecus not generally distinct from those of the pre- 

 sent da}^ A third Semnopithecus is found in the pliocene sands at 

 Montpellier. In the miocene beds of Pikermi, at the foot of Penteli- 

 con, in Greece, are to be found the remains of two species of Ifeso- 

 pithecus, a genus which Professor AVagner considers as intermediate 

 between Hylohates and SemnopiiJiecus ; but Professor Owen has 

 pointed out that the third lobe of the last molar is as well developed 

 in Mesopitliecus as in Semnopitliecus. 



Hitherto we have only had to deal with tailed monkeys^ mostly of 

 small dimensions, and not differing much in type from those of the 

 present day. Evidence has however been afforded to us of the occur- 

 rence of two forms of fossil Gibbons {Pliopithecus and Dry op itli ecus'), 

 one of which has been regarded by more than one distinguished natu- 

 ralist as approaching nearer to the human type than even the Gorilla. 

 The illustrious Sir Charles Lyell has stated " that in anatomical struc- 

 ture, as well as in stature, the Dryopitliecus came nearer to man than 

 any quadrumanous species, living or fossil, before known to zoolo- 



