234 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



before he had spread step by step over the face of the 

 earth. The spreading of man to regions widely sepa- 

 rated by the sea, no doubt, preceded any considerable 

 amount of divergence of character in the several races ; 

 for otherwise we should sometimes meet with the same 

 race in distinct continents ; and this is never the case. 

 Sir J. Lubbock, after comparing the arts now practised 

 by savages in all parts of the world, specifies those 

 which man could not have known, when he first wan- 

 dered from his original birth-place ; for if once learnt 

 they would never have been forgotten. 27 He thus shews 

 that "the spear, which is but a development of the 

 " knife-point, and the club, which is but a long hammer, 

 " are the only things left." He admits, however, that 

 the art of making fire probably had already been dis- 

 covered, for it is common to all the races now existing, 

 and was known to the ancient cave-inhabitants of 

 Europe. Perhaps the art of making rude canoes or 

 rafts was likewise known ; but as man existed at a re- 

 mote epoch, when the land in many places stood at a 

 very different level, he would have been able, without 

 the aid of canoes, to have spread widely. Sir J. Lubbock 

 further remarks how improbable it is that our earliest 

 ancestors could have " counted as high as ten, consider- 

 " ing that so many races now in existence cannot get 

 " beyond four." Nevertheless, at this early period, the 

 intellectual and social faculties of man could hardly have 

 been inferior in any extreme degree to those now pos- 

 sessed by the lowest savages ; otherwise primeval man 

 could not have been so eminently successful in the 

 struggle for life, as proved by his early and wide 

 diffusion. 



From the fundamental differences between certain 



' Prehistoric Times,' 1869, p. 574. 



