MR. DARWIN’S CRITICS 175 
information, and, as the very existence of individuals and of 
- hole families and tribes depends upon the completeness of this 
knowledge, all the acute perceptive faculties of the adult savage 
are directed to acquiring and perfecting it. The good hunter or 
warrior thus comes to know the bearing of every hill and moun- 
tain range, the directions and junctions of all the streams, the 
situation of each tract characterised by peculiar vegetation, not 
_ only within the area he has himself traversed, but perhaps for 
a hundred miles around it. His acute observation enables him 
) detect the slightest undulations of the surface, the various 
- changes of subsoil and alterations in the character of the vegeta- 
tion that would be quite imperceptible to a stranger. His eye is 
side of trees, the presence of certain plants under the shade of 
s, the morning and evening flight of birds, are to him 
ications of direction almost as sure as the sun in the heavens” 
yp. 207, 208). 
Ihave seen enough of savages to be able to 
lare that nothing can be more admirable than 
his description of what a savage has to learn. 
But it is incomplete. Add to all this the know- 
ledge which a savage is obliged to gain of the 
‘Properties of plants, sot the characters and habits 
f animals, and of the minute indications-by which 
eir course is discoverable : consider that even an 
; Ansty can make excellent baskets and nets, 
-_ 
: 
a 
sfix a quartern loaf at sixty yards; and that 
y often, as in the case of the American Indians, 
the language of a savage exhibits complexities 
_ which a well-trained European finds it difficult to 
aster: consider that every time a savage tracks 
