THE INFLUENCE OF MAN. 32 T 



the top of the trees to the ground. One may perhaps 

 assume, with Darwin, that the original ape-Hke animal 

 from which man may have descended came from a 

 forest of this kind. Here alone could he find abundance 

 of wild fruit, and obtain, by climbing, protection from 

 most of his enemies. Even in this condition therefore 

 he had an influence on vegetation. 



Palaeolithic man certainly influenced the vegetation 

 around him. He appears to have already discovered 

 fire, the most potent weapon of primitive man. 

 With the aid of fire, it was possible for him to keep 

 off wild beasts, to harden wood for weapons, to make 

 dug-out canoes, and to fell trees. It is not possible 

 to discover how far such people as the inhabitants 

 of the Cromagnon shelter, or those of the Trou du 

 Mouton, utilised fire. It is, however, probable that 

 even then the forests had been, to a certain extent, 

 cleared away. The enormous herds of wild horses 

 on which palaeolithic man lived could only obtain food 

 in a sort of park-like country, or very open wood, 

 interrupted by stretches of grass, like, for instance, 

 the New Forest. In America prairie fires limit the 

 extension of the timber belts by the rivers ; and, in 

 such scantily peopled countries as the Albert Edward 

 Nyanza district, fire has almost destroyed the trees, 

 which may have once covered the country. 



Although, as here suggested, man may have used 

 this powerful weapon for his own purposes, he seems to 

 have been, in every other respect, wholly dependent on 

 nature. He seems to have lived chiefly upon wild 

 animals, insects, fruits, and bulbs. At this period he 

 occupied the temperate forest region of Britain, 

 Belgium, and Middle Europe. He was housed in holes 

 and crannies of the rocks, probably roughly covered in 



(B7) X 



