164 THE EFFECTS OF GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT 



Europe for countless ages, and trace the effect of geographic 

 environment on his condition in each of these countries. 



The whole of Africa was at one time probably occupied by the 

 Dwarfs or Hottentots. The climate is warm, clothing is unnec- 

 essary; they require but slight shelter for protection against 

 sun and rain. Their dwellings are either in trees or rude huts, 

 with thatched roofs, sometimes open on every side. The streams 

 and jungles furnish fish, birds, and animals for food and also 

 roots and fruits. They become expert in laying snares and traps, 

 in catching fish, and in hunting. Further needs they have none. 

 There is neither necessity nor inducement for other exertion or 

 for further development. Their environment has made them 

 and keeps them what they are. A stronger race of negroes from 

 the north, with better weapons, drove them into the hottest 

 jungles of Central and South Africa ; there they remain. Again, 

 other races appeared, and to maintain their position the negroes 

 must improve their weapons, must learn to make bows and 

 poisoned arrows, spears and javelins, must clear spaces in the 

 forest, erect palings around them, gather within these enclosures, 

 and invent a system of alarms. To protect themselves from wild 

 beasts they learned the use of fire and invented means of lighting 

 a fire by friction. Gradually they gathered into families, and fire 

 was used for cooking animal food. Sometimes the meat was 

 hung over the fire on a spit; sometimes cooked in ant-holes 

 with hot stones. The date and cocoanut palm supplied them 

 with food, shelter, and light. They had advanced a stage beyond 

 the Dwarfs and Hottentots, but as their environment encouraged 

 no further progress they remained stationary. 



In the Arctic regions the environment and therefore the con- 

 ditions of life are different, but equally unfavorable to progress. 

 In these regions clothing is a necessity, and to obtain the skins 

 of sea and land animals the Arctic man was driven to invent 

 snares and weapons and to make rude boats. In a land of snow 

 and ice he must have a warm, tight shelter as well as clothing; 

 so he builds huts of blocks of stone or ice covered with snow. 

 He makes a fire and gathers moss for fuel. As his surroundings 

 afford him scanty vegetable food, and that only in the short 

 summer, he dries berries and mosses ; he smokes and freezes the 

 fiesh of bear, seal, and walrus, and lays in a suppl}'- for winter 

 use. The animals which surround him are generally not the 

 ferocious beasts of warmer climates ; the dog and reindeer become 

 his companions and friends. Gradually he learns to use them 



