6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



cultivated forests, or from alcohol produced by the starchy 

 grains and vegetables. 



In early days the fat of animals or of plants served for illumi- 

 nation, but with petroleum they passed, probably forever, out of 

 use, and it is more than likely that in respect to illumination we 

 shall be independent of both animals and plants. 



Dependence of man upon animal labor. To harness the ani- 

 mals and put them to work is one of the primitive instincts of 



Fig. i. The famous Percheron stallion Brilliant 

 After a painting by the great animal artist Rosa Bonheur 



man, and a book would be required even to outline the thou- 

 sand ways in which man has been helped by his dumb com- 

 panions, and in which his future happiness inevitably rests upon 

 their labors. 



It is the reindeer and the dog that make the polar regions 

 habitable. It was the ox that traveled the plains and developed 

 the Pacific coast in the days of '49. The last of the buffalo gave 

 their flesh to feed the workmen that laid the Union Pacific — 

 that first mechanical bond between the East and the West. 



