446 DIFFERENT LINES 



and one French writer even insinuates that monkeys are 

 more human than Laplanders. 



The civilisation, moreover, of the Stone age differs not 

 only in degree, but also in kind, varying according to the 

 climate, vegetation, food, etc ; from which it becomes evi- 

 dent at least to all those who believe in the unity of the 

 human race that the present habits of savage races are not 

 to be regarded as depending directly on those which charac- 

 terised the first men, but on the contrary as arising from 

 external conditions, influenced indeed to a certain extent by 

 national character, which however is after all but the result 

 of external conditions acting on previous generations. 



If we take a few of the things which are most generally 

 useful in savage life, and at the same time most easily ob- 

 tainable, such for instance as bows and arrows, slings, throw- 

 ing sticks, pottery, domestic animals, or a knowledge of 

 agriculture, we might perhaps have expected d priori that 

 the acquisition of them would have followed some regular 

 succession. That this, however, was not the case is shown 

 by the annexed table, which will, I think, be found inte- 

 resting. It gives some idea of the progress made by various 

 savage tribes, at the time when they were first visited by 

 Europeans. 



Some of the differences exhibited in this table may indeed 

 be easily accounted for. The frozen soil and arctic climate 

 of the Esquimaux would not encourage, would not even 

 permit, any agriculture. So, again, the absence of hogs in 

 New Zealand, of dogs in the Friendly Isles, and of all 

 mammalia in Easter Island, is probably due to the fact that 

 the original colonists did not possess these animals, and that 

 their isolated position prevented them afterwards from ob- 

 taining any. Moreover, we must remember that as a general 

 rule, the lowest savage can only use one or two weapons. 

 He is limited to those which he can carry about with 



