CHAPTER XXX 



THE ARBOREAL ACTIVITIES OF M(Jl)i:iiN MAX 



If tree-climbing has done so much for the human stock, 

 and if the arboreal habit is, so to speak, so near to the 

 basis of humanity, it is natural to inquire in+o the evidences 

 of the retention of this ancestral habit in existing man. 

 What abilities to lead an arboreal life are manifested in 

 existing man ? 



In such an inquiry we are liable to be led astray by 

 many things, but none more likely to distort our outlook 

 than the fact that modern civilized man has learn f<l to 

 climb. Schoolboys are taught to climb a roj)e upon 

 lines altogether different from those employed by their 

 Primate ancestors. A white man " shins " up a pole 

 in a fashion foreign to the arboreal Primates: he clasps 

 it with his knees, and with his locked legs and feet, and 

 by approximating this hold to his hand-grasp, he clumsily 

 and slowly progresses upwards. The Euro])ean small 

 boy climbs a tree in true monkey fashion till he ('(^nes 

 to a branch which is nearly perpendicular, and then his 

 only resort is to " swarm " up it. The European man has 

 perfected his knee and leg grasp by a mechanical con- 

 trivance known to schoolboys as climbing inuis. which 

 are furnished with spikes at the points where the hi^s 

 are most adopted to hugging the ])ran('h. 



This method of climbing is, however, a mere ada])tation 

 to the handicap imposed by long civilization and the habit 

 of wearing boots. It is a confession that Ww plastic foot- 

 grasp is lost. Unbooted races do not 

 " shin " 



or 



swarm 

 up trees, but many of them have learned Mune 



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