AND ITS INHABITANTS 143 



sequent aridity, has been mentioned. As a direct result, the 

 stupendous barrier of the Himalayas began to arise, cutting 

 off the forests of central Asia from their old-time continuity 

 with those in India, and thereby severing the lines of com- 

 munication by which the anthropoids had left the cradle of 

 their evolution. Miocene and Pliocene aridity diminished the 

 northern forests, as Devonian aridity had diminished the 

 terrestrial waters, until finally there were detached wooded 

 areas within which the contained primates were as isolated as 

 is the orang on sea-girt Borneo and Sumatra today. Further 

 diminution compelled the descent to the ground on the part of 

 the larger and more intelligent forms among them and the 

 destruction of such as could not meet terrestrial competition. 

 Thus a man-like tree-born primate became an earth-borne 

 creature which from sheer necessity ultimately arose to man's 

 estate. This meant the assumption of the erect posture and 

 the lengthening and strengthening of the lower limbs for speed, 

 while the hands, released from the fetters of their earlier loco- 

 motive function, became the organs of the mind. Now man 

 had to compete with the mighty carnivores, and as nature had 

 ill endowed him with defensive weapons he had to devise crude 

 armaments of stick or stone with which to insure his survival. 

 The dwindling forests, especially as their tropical character 

 had gone, no longer supplied an easily gained livelihood, and 

 sustenance had to be sought from other sources, mainly from 

 among the feebler of man's fellow creatures. It is probable 

 that he also utilized the seeds of grasses which grew along 

 the margins of the forests, the ancestors of our domesticated 

 grains. 



Increasing severity of winters, prophetic of the Glacial 

 Period, necessitated some further means of keeping warm, 

 and man utilized for clothing the skins of beasts which he had 

 slain and later harnessed fire to his use. In common with the 

 other primates, the precursors of mankind were doubtless 



