lone, its
number of individuals must have reached into the millions, yet of those
hosts only a few fugitive bones are known to exist. There could not well
be a more striking instance of the imperfection of the geological
record. The sparse remains of Dryopithecus, the species in question,
with some few other fossils of doubtfully anthropoid species, save us
from a total blank, and open the vista to a myriad of active arboreal
creatures which had their dwelling-place in the old-time European
forests, but have almost utterly vanished from human knowledge.

These are not the only answers that can be made to the question
propounded. Though the bones of the man-ape have not been found, relics
of several stages of developing man exist. Most significant among these,
until recently, was the celebrated Neanderthal skull, which in facial
aspect departs widely from the ordinary human and approaches the simian
type. More significant still is the Pithecanthropus cranium, indicative
of an animal that stood midway between man and ape, a creature fully
erect in posture, as its thigh bone proves, but with a brain that had
attained but the halfway stage of development. In this notable find we
seem to see man in the making, the body already fully man-like, the
brain advanced much beyond the stage of the ape intellect, but still far
below that of man. It is the remnant of a creature significantly on the
dividing line between man-ape and man.

So much for the response to the question as hitherto made. As the case
stands, we are not obliged to stop at this point. Within the latter
section of the nineteenth century discoveries have been made which fit
in admirably with our argument. Rediscoveries, perhaps, we should call
them, for they were imperfectly known in ancient times, but only
recently have they fairly come within human ken. We refer to the Pygmy
tribes of the African forests, not definitely offered hitherto as aids
to the elucidation of this problem, yet which seem to adapt themselves
closely to it, and certainly help essentially in filling the gap between
civilized man and his ape-like ancestor.

We have already said that there appear to have been two separate and
distinct stages in the evolution of man: one, that of his conflict with
the animal world, ending in his mastery of the brute creation; the
second that of his conflict with nature, ending in his mastery of the
resources of the earth. Overlapping and succeeding the second