t rivers, the Tigris, Euphrates,
Indus, Ganges, and the Nile. The supposed home also lies in a zone in
which the animals most resembling man are found, which is an important
consideration; as, in the development of the earth, animals appeared
according to the conditions of climate and food supply, so the portion
of the earth best prepared for man's early life is most likely to be
his first home.

Although it is impossible to determine the first home of man, either
from a scientific or an historical standpoint, there are a few
well-acknowledged theories to be observed: First, as the islands of the
ocean were not peopled when first discovered by modern navigators, it
is reasonable to suppose that the primitive home of man was on one of
the continents. As man is the highest and last development of organic
nature, it is advocated, with considerable force of argument, that his
first home was in a region suitable to the life of the anthropoid apes.
As none of these, either living or fossil, are found in Australia or
America, these continents are practically excluded from the probable
list of places for the early home of man.

{69}

In considering the great changes which have taken place in the earth's
surface, southern India and southern Africa were large islands at the
time of man's appearance; hence, there is little probability of either
of these being the primitive home. None of the oldest remains of man
have been found in the high northern latitudes of Europe or America.
We have then left a strip of country on the southern slope of the great
mountain chain which begins in western Europe and extends to the
Himalaya Mountains, in Asia, which appears to be the territory in which
was situated the early home of man. The geological relics and the
distribution of the race both point to the fact that in this belt man's
life began; but it is not determined whether it was in Europe or in
Asia, there being adherents to both theories.

_The Antiquity of Man Is Shown in Racial Differentiation_.--Granted
that the life of the human race has originated from a common biological
origin and from a common geographical centre, it has taken a very long
time for the races to be differentiated into the physical traits they
possess to-day, as it has taken a long time for man to spread over the
earth. The generalized man wandering along the streams and through the
forests in search of food, seeking for shelter under rocks and in caves
an