HOW ANIMALS LEARNT TO CLIMB 101 



stages, to the man who " did " the tree in the best 

 time on record. 



Climbing runs in families, for steeple-jacks are often 

 the sons of fathers who were in the business ; but it is 

 somewhat odd that man, though he learns to swim so 

 well that armed only with a knife he can encounter a 

 shark in its native element, and, judged by the extent 

 of his mining operations in comparison with his own 

 size, is a good worker underground, has never become 

 a good climber, or shown the slightest tendency to 

 become arboreal, as he has become aquatic and 

 subterranean. 



South Sea babies that cannot walk will roll into 

 the sea and swim ; collier boys at fourteen will take 

 pick and lamp and descend into the mine almost 

 as naturally as young moles ; but we believe that, 

 in spite of the danger from wild beasts in forest 

 regions, and the fact that in such places there is ten 

 times more life on the level of the tree-tops than on 

 the ground, there is no single instance of a tribe which, 

 properly speaking, has become arboreal and learnt 

 to climb like monkeys. Though not a few make huts 

 in trees, they approach these by ladders ; and unless 

 in their huts, which they use as a refuge and sleeping- 

 place, they spend their time on the ground. 



Even in forests where the upper levels of the trees 

 are so closely laced together that a comparatively slight 

 adaptation would enable the Indians to progress from 

 tree to tree, and where nearly the whole of the fruit, 

 and the greater part of the birds and animals used for 

 food are found only in this " upper story," man is not, 



