20 EVOLUTION MADE PLAIN 
the earth as yet has been searched, and nearly 
all the fossil discoveries have been accidental. 
For these reasons the geological record in re¬ 
spect to fossil evidences is far from complete. 
Yet from time to time new discoveries are 
filling in the gaps in the record. 
Anthropologists present us with evidences of 
pre-historic races that were far lower than the 
lowest savage of today. Some of the evidences 
of man’s existence tens of thousands of years 
ago were known before Darwin set the world 
astir with his revolutionary discovery, and the 
old school geologists, like Hugh Miller, who 
had not been entirely weaned from scriptural 
literalism were sadly puzzled in regard to the 
evidences of these “pre-Adamites.” 
Fossils have been found showing several 
gradations or stages in development interme¬ 
diate between man and his pre-human ancestor 
—evidences which, if they do not completely 
bridge the chasm, stand as ruined pillars, 
broken arches, isolated spans of the bridge 
over which man was many hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of years in crossing. 
The first skull discovered (sixty years ago) 
of the Neanderthal men was so entirely dif-’ 
ferent from other pre-historic skulls that one 
scientist declared it was a mal-formation; but 
other fossils were found later that proved the 
peculiarities to be racial characteristics. These 
men, who lived in Europe down to thirty thou¬ 
sand years ago, were squat, bent-kneed, thick- 
skulled, almost chinless, and with ridge-like 
projections over deep-set eyes. In skull de¬ 
velopment they were lower than any savage 
of today. 
