1666 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



therefore, that every fact and circumstance connected 

 with the Fuegians agrees with the supposition that 

 their "utter barbarism" was due entirely to the cruel 

 conditions of their life, and the wretched country 

 into which they had been driven. The Bushmen of 

 South Africa are another case in point. It seems to 

 be clearly ascertained that they belong to the same 

 race as other tribes who are far less degraded, and 

 that they are simply the descendants of outcasts 

 driven to the woods and rocks. So, again, among the 

 great islands of the Pacific, the natives of Van Die- 

 men's Land were the most utterly degraded of all 

 the Polynesian races. 



With these facts staring us in the face, connecting 

 themselves in an obvious order with causes which we 

 know to be all operating in one direction, is it not 

 absurd to argue that the condition of these outcasts 

 of the human family can be assumed as representing 

 the aboriginal condition of man? Is it not certain 

 that whatever advances toward civilization may have 

 been made among their progenitors, such advances 

 must necessarily have been lost under the conditions 

 to which their children are reduced? 



And now we can better estimate the value to be set 

 on the arguments which have been founded on the 

 rude implements found in the river drifts and in the 

 caves of Northern Europe. I, for one, accept the evi- 

 dence which geology affords that these implements are 

 of very ancient date. I accept too the evidence which 

 that science affords, that these implements were in all 

 probability the ice hatchets and rude knives used 

 by tribes which toward the close of the glacial age 



