THE WAY OF THE WILD 7 1 



wild species ; the new generations and, in the end, the stable 

 stock is constantly arising, not from the general mass, but 

 from a few exceptional family lines of great vigor, long life, 

 and fair fecundity. 1 



Significance of offensive and defensive weapons. It has been 

 remarked before that man is the only animal able to use weapons 

 other than those with which nature endowed him. Some of 

 these natural endowments are, however, remarkable both in 

 their character and their usefulness. 



It is natural for any intelligent being to make use of any part 

 that will help either in defending himself from his enemies or 

 in assisting him in taking his food. In this essential business 

 some make use of one part, others of other parts. 



In general, the extremities are likely to be covered with hard 

 and often more or less sharp or cutting parts. If so, they are 

 exceedingly useful to the possessor as means of inflicting injury 

 by blows, puncture, or tearing. Horns, hoofs, teeth, and toe- 

 nails are mighty weapons on the earth, and when the same 

 species happens to have two or three of these natural weapons 

 well developed at the same time, he is a formidable enemy. A 

 notable instance is found in the tiger and the cat family generally. 

 The grizzly bear has both tooth and claw terribly developed, but 

 his claws are not retractable, and he is incapable of the stealth 

 of the tiger. 2 



Not all species are armed with such terrible weapons, though 

 every one has some advantage sufficient to enable it to secure 



1 It is so with people. Comparatively few individuals alive now will be in 

 any way represented in the blood lines that people the world five hundred or 

 even one hundred years from now. The people then living will trace their 

 ancestry to a few of the most vigorous and virile, but not necessarily the most 

 prolific, of existing families. The future of the human as well as other species 

 depends quite as much upon quality and longevity as upon numbers. 



2 Enthusiastic amateur students of natural history often descant upon the 

 beneficence of nature in thus providing her children with certain means of 

 getting food, forgetting, it must be, the interests of the victim and assuming 

 a partiality between the species that does not exist. Nothing was made es- 

 pecially to be eaten, nor are all the favors bestowed on a few species (see a 

 later paragraph on Design in nature). 



