72 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



animals as the reindeer, the hairy mammoth, and the 

 woolly rhinoceros, while the previous species had 

 migrated to the south or perished. Thus it would 

 appear that the men of the mammoth age may not be 

 really the most primitive men, but a derivative from 

 them under pressure of a severe climate. This possi- 

 bility may be summed up as follows. If the early 

 part of the post-glacial or palanthropic era was 

 characterised by a milder climate than its later period, 

 this may have had much to do with the change in 

 implements and weapons. The earliest men probably 

 subsisted merely on natural fruits and other vegetable 

 productions. To secure these in a mild climate they 

 would require no implements, except perhaps to dig 

 for roots or to crack nuts. If they migrated into a 

 colder climate, or if the climate became more severe, 

 they might be obliged to become hunters and fisher- 

 men, and would invent new implements and weapons, 

 not because they had advanced in civilisation, but, as 

 Lamech has it in Genesis, * because of the ground 

 which the Lord had cursed,' and which would no 

 longer yield food to them. At the same time they 

 might contend with one another for the most sheltered 

 and productive stations, and so war might further 

 stimulate that very questionable advance in civilisa- 

 tion which consists in the improvement of weapons of 

 destruction. We have much to learn as to these 

 matters ; but we must, if we have any regard to phy- 

 siology and to natural probability, start from the idea 

 that the most primitive men were frugivorous and 



