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). 
