ECOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY 319 



and animals with what is obviously not structure in man, namely, his 

 culture and mental makeup. Waxwieler (210) compares human society 

 with the whole animal kingdom, as constituting another society. McGee 

 (211) takes a similar position. In discussing the relation of culture to 

 environment he says : 



When the law of biotic development is extended to mankind, it appears 

 to fail; for the men of the desert and shore land, mountain and plain, arctic 

 and tropic, are ceaselessly occupied in strife against environmental conditions 

 which transform their subhuman associates; yet men remain essentially 

 unchanged, some taller, some stouter, some swifter of foot, some longer of life 

 than others, yet all essentially Homo sapiens in every characteristic. 



More careful examination indicates that the failure of the law when 

 extended to man is apparent only. The desert nomads retain certain common 

 physical characteristics, but develop arts of obtaining water and food and these 

 arts are adjusted to the local environment 



He continues with the citation of other cases. Such adjustment of 

 arts (212) is comparable to the adjustment of animals with regard to 

 food, nest-building, materials used in nest-building, and other features 

 of ecology and behavior. Finally, animal ecology offers the material 

 and methods with which many ideas of geography may be experimentally 

 verified (213, 214). 



