XIII. Till-: WILD MAMMALS oF THH FARM 



"I'm truly sorry man's dominion 

 Has broken Nature's social union, 

 An' justifies that ill opinion, 



Which fnakcs thee startle. 

 At me, thy poor earth-horn companion 

 An' fellcnc-mortal! 

 — Robert Burns (To a mouse, on turning her up in her nest with the plough), 



Aborij^nal society in America was largely based on the 

 native wild beasts. The\' were more essential to the red 

 man than our flocks and herds are to us. His dejiendence 

 upon them was inore direct and absolute. They furnished 

 him food and clothing and shelter and tools. His clothing 

 was made of skins; his eating and drinking vessels were of 

 horn and hide and bone. His knife was a beaver tooth. 

 Sinews, teeth, hair, hide, hoofs, intestines and bones 

 all ser^'cd him. Out of them he got hammers and wedges 

 and drills and scrapers and clamps ; threads and thongs and 

 boxes and bags; tools and supplies for all purposes. He 

 made textiles of hair and of quills, and in them wrought the 

 expression of his esthetic ideals. 



The Indian was conquered and dri^•cn out in part b}' direct 

 assault, but in a far larger part by the destruction of his 

 resources in furs and game. Lx)sing these, he became 

 de])endcnt. Anned resistance by the eastern Indians ceased 

 with the passing of the beaver; b>' the Plains Indians, with 

 the passing of the buffalo. 



The earliest white settlements in America were su]:)ported 

 mainly by himting and trajjping and the sale of furs. Mis- 

 sionary zeal and desire for extension of empire ])romoted the 

 founding of colonies, but peltries provided the necessary 

 revenues for their maintenance. The fur trade was inti- 

 mately associated with our early colonial development and 



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