v MR. DARWIN'S ^CRITICS 175 



information, and, as the very existence of individuals and of 

 whole 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 

 to 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 

 always open to the direction in which he is going ; the mossy 

 side of trees, the presence of certain plants under the shade of 

 rocks, the morning and evening flight of birds, are to him 

 indications of direction almost as sure as the sun in the heavens " 

 (pp. 207, 208). 



I have seen enough of savages to be able to 

 declare that nothing can be more admirable than 

 this 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, of the characters and habits 

 of animals, and of the minute indications by which 

 their course is discoverable : consider that even an 

 Australian can make excellent baskets and nets, 

 and neatly fitted and beautifully balanced spears ; 

 that he learns to use these so as to be able to 

 transfix a quartern loaf at sixty yards ; and that 

 very 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 

 master : consider that every time a savage tracks 



