672 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



some contemporary tribes who are still living in the stone ages, 

 and without domesticated animals or plants, will enable us to 

 make a fair comparison between the condition of man before 

 their introduction and that to which he has been able to rise by 

 their aid. 



The Fuegians and the Australian aborigines are still living in 

 a condition very nearly like that of primitive man. The only 

 habitation of the Fuegians, cold as is the climate of their coun- 

 try, is the hut of branches, their only clothing is the skin of a 

 fox, deer, or guanaco, which they throw over the right shoulder 

 or over the left, according to which is exposed to the wind. They 

 have no domestic animal except the dog, which assists them in 

 hunting, and is of no mean service to them ; for their only weap- 

 ons are a javelin tipped with a sharp bone, and bows, with flint- 

 pointed arrows. They are, in fact, contemporaries of our civili- 

 zation, still in their palaeolithic age. They are not good fisher- 

 men. They gather a few shells on the beach, and an occasional 

 stranded whale furnishes them a royal feast. They eat their 

 food with only the slightest preparation, sometimes throwing 

 their meat on the fire for an instant to bring out its salinity. 

 They have no convenient means of making fire, and, if the supply 

 they try to keep goes out, have to resort to the tedious process of 

 rubbing sticks. Their existence becomes most terrible when 

 storms prevent them from hunting and fishing. 



The Australians are, if possible, more savage than the Fue- 

 gians, but they live in a hospitable country, the natural flora of 

 which furnishes them some food-supply, and the fauna abundant 

 game. But they have no domesticated animal. Their wild dog 

 is sometimes tamed and trained to hunting, but has not been 

 reduced to a really domestic condition. With no habitation or 

 fixed abode, the Australian sleeps wherever night overtakes him. 

 He has no clothing or feeling of modesty. His arms are a wooden 

 lance, tipped with a kangaroo's tooth, and the boomerang. His 

 food depends on the chances of the chase. When it is abun- 

 dant, he never thinks of saving it ; if it is exhausted, he suffers 

 hunger or turns anthropophagist. 



The Eskimos of Greenland are also hunters and fishers. Not- 

 withstanding the rigor of their climate, they enjoy conditions of 

 existence infinitely superior to those of the Fuegians and Aus- 

 tralians ; and they owe their advantages to two animals one not 

 domesticated, the seal, which nearly supplies all their wants. It 

 being very plentiful on their coasts, they hunt it so regularly as 

 to be nearly always out of the danger of privations. The second 

 animal, the dog, is domesticated, and, besides being a valuable 

 auxiliary in the chase, serves them as a draught animal. 



The Eskimos close their windows with seal parchment ; they 



