edwards] NATURE-PLAY IN THE MOUNTAINS 279 



have the enjoyment of what will hare then crystallized into a 

 right — the same right to be taught to read a roadside as to be 

 taught to read a book. 



Nature-Play in the Mountains 



Charles Lincoln Edwards 

 Los Angeles City Schools 



The primitive man experiment carried through by Joe Knowles 

 in Klamath Forest, California, during the summer of 19 14, has 

 emphasized the need of a knowledge of the plants and animals 

 necessary to survival if one is lost. This test demonstrated that 

 the man of today, without clothes, weapons, or other modern 

 implements is able to wrest a living from the wilderness. The 

 majority of people are complacent parasites upon civilization. 

 The virile resourcefulness of the ancient peoples is often w r ell 

 nigh lost. It is highly important that we and our children should 

 be awakened to the use of the innate powers we have inherited 

 from our tree-dwelling and cliff-climbing ancestors. 



It fell to the lot of Professor Waterman, of the University of 

 California, and myself, to act as judges in this single-handed 

 contest waged by Mr. Knowles with the hard conditions of nature. 

 The success of this remarkable test has inspired our nature-play 

 in Los Angeles throughout the autumn. I have asked the children 

 in one group after another, of our one hundred and thirty-one 

 elemenatry schools, the following question: "If you were lost 

 in the forest, what would you do about it; sit down and cry your 

 eyes out, or run about like a chicken with his head cut off?" 

 As a matter of fact the large majority of lost people do one of 

 these things; either give up in wailing despair and starve with 

 food all about them, or profitlessly run here and there, until 

 exhausted through misdirected energy. So our pupils have learned 

 about the edible wild plants in season in their own neighborhoods, 

 such as the common roadside mallow, with its "cheeses," wild 

 mustard, green seeds of the wild radish, shepherds '-purse, water- 

 cress, acorns and other nuts. Then the common hoarhound and 

 anise have exemplified plants with medicinal qualities, and the 

 poison-oak, Jimson-weed and nightshade, forms to be avoided 

 because of a more or less poisonous character. 



