SLEIGHING. 331 



volved less labour than carrying or rolling them. In the first 

 instance he must have dragged for himself, but as soon as he 

 had sufficiently subjugated some animal, doubtless he made 

 that animal drag for him. Our first object and ruling passion 

 in these days is to arrive at a position, thanks to which we 

 can get somebody or something to do all those things which 

 we do not care to do ourselves, and no doubt that instinct 

 existed quite as strongly soon after the creation as it does at 

 the present moment. 



Primeval man must, however, have had many difficulties to 

 overcome before arriving at anything like this coveted position. 

 It must have been very long before any animal was sufficiently 

 domesticated and subdued to do man's work for him, and 

 before populations became dense the human slave must have 

 been a rare luxury. Given, however, an increase of population 

 and its consequent spread over the earth, the weaker tribes 

 must have gradually been forced towards the mountains and 

 have made acquaintance with the snow. Then, to a certainty, 

 sleighing must have commenced. Probably ages passed before 

 the powers of the inclined plane, the wheel, the screw, or even 

 the lever, were properly understood and utilised ; but the ease 

 with which heavy bodies can be moved along a smooth surface, 

 with but the smallest amount of friction, must have been 

 one of man's earliest and most useful discoveries. Probably, 

 however, no discovery has ever proved itself to be so little 

 capable of development or improvement. What sledging was 

 ages ago that, virtually, it is now, and must continue to be to 

 the end of time. 



If, as we are told, Asia Minor were the cradle of the 

 human race, and, supposing the climatic conditions to have 

 been somewhat the same as now, the weaker of our forefathers 

 must soon have been shouldered out towards the mountains of 

 the present Armenia. The fertile plains of that country may 

 have flowed with milk and honey, as they would do now in the 

 summer if properly cultivated, but to exist during the long cold 

 winters fuel is indispensable, and that is only to be found in 



