Page:The Last link.djvu/34

22 searched amount to little in comparison with the whole surface of the land, even if we leave out of account the fact that more than two-thirds of the globe are covered by water.

These deplorable deficiencies of empirical palæontology are balanced on the other side by a growing number of positive facts, which possess an inestimable value in human phylogeny. The most interesting and most important of these is the celebrated fossil Pithecanthropus erectus, discovered in Java in 1894 by Dr. Eugène Dubois. Three years ago this now famous ape-like man provoked an animated discussion at the third International Zoological Congress at Leyden. I may therefore be allowed to say a few words as to its scientific significance. Unfortunately, the fossil remains of this creature are very scanty: the skull-cap, a femur, and two teeth. It is obviously impossible to form