[8] Since this was written the scientific world has been startled by the discovery announced by Professor Ameghino in the lower tertiary, supposed to be Eocene, of Patagonia, of numerous small monkeys of the American type of cebidæ, affording evidence of the existence of anthropoid primates at this extremely early date.--Lydekker in _Natural Science_ for April 1892. He adds, "Perhaps still more noteworthy are the signs of affinity exhibited by these early primates to the extinct South American protopytheridæ. The latter are clearly related to the aberrant ungulate typotherium of the South American tertiaries, which appears to be allied on the one hand to the extinct toxodon, and on the other to the rodents. If substantiated, such an unexpected relationship as that of the American primates to the toxodonts will materially modify some of our present views as to the mutual relationships of mammals." And I may add, throw a flood of light on the question of the "Missing Link," and the development of man and the quadrumana from a common ancestral type. My present object being not to write a book on geology, but on human origins, I shall not attempt to trace back the geological evidence beyond the Miocene, or to enter on any details of the later periods, except so far as they bear on what may be called geological chronology, _i.e._ on the probable dates which may be assigned to the first appearance and subsequent evolution of the human race going back from historical times. Beginning with the recent or post-glacial period, the Swiss and Italian lake-villages supply clear evidence of the progress of man in Western Europe through the neolithic into the historical period. They afford us an unbroken series of substantially the same state of society, existing down to the time of the Romans, for a great many centuries back of communities living in lake-villages built upon piles, like the villages in Thrace described by Herodotus, or those of the present day in New Guinea. Some of these have been occupied continuously, so that the _débris_ of different ages are stored in consecutive order like geological strata, and afford an unerring test of their relative antiquity. It is clear that many of those lake-villages were founded in the age of stone, and passed through that of bronze into the age of iron. The oldest settlements belong to the neolithic age, and contain polished stone implements and pottery, but they show a state of civilization not yet very far advanced. The inhabitants were only just emerging from the hunting into the pastoral stage. They lived principally on the produce of the chase, the bones of the stag and wild boar being very plentiful, while those of ox and sheep are rare. Agriculture and the cereals seem to have been unknown, though stores of acorns and hazel nuts were found which had been roasted for food.