63 photographs,

41 sketches.

This attractive little book is written for the advanced high school student (with some knowledge of biology) interested in learning of the ascent of man and of his fossil ancestors. The thesis of evolution is carefully developed from the beginning clues through the contributions of amphibians, ancient reptiles and mammals, to early primates and fossil man. The reconstruction of "near-men," and the first men is well done; the revelation of the extinction of the Neandertal Man line and subsequent but parallel flowering of Homo sapiens is quite up-to-date.

Unfortunately, the out-dated Early, Middle, and Late subdivisions of the Pleistocene Epoch are retained, there being not a word even about the now generally accepted four subdivisions of the Wiirm (Late Pleistocene) in Europe. The title is misleading, for less than 5 percent of the 107 text pages are devoted to the "finding" of fossil men.

The last chapter, quite out of line with the previous scientific account, valiantly argues that the legends and myths of the Bible quite naturally were all that shepherds and lonely village folk could pass on in explanation to their children of their own origin, whereas today we inherit the great wealth of information derived from the labors of our scientists, but especially from those who dig up the answers, the archeologists.