THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
Though we are accustomed to think of the dog of primitive man as an 
aid and companion in his hunting, it is doubtful whether it was of much 
Dogs of real value in that way. It might help in running down a 
Early Man. deer or overcoming a boar, but the everyday hunting of a 
man armed only with bow and spear must be by cautious methods of stalk- 
ing his game, and here a dog would be likely to do more harm than good. 
It is only since the invention of firearms that hunting with dogs has become 
THE SETTER,—A HIGHLY DEVELOPED TYPE OF HUNTING Doc. 
general, and the pointers and retrievers of our time are of very recent ori- 
gin. The earliest men no doubt valued their dogs principally as a reserve 
food supply; and secondarily, taking advantage of that sense of proprietor- 
ship innate in the animal, because they were useful in protecting the camp 
against inroads of wild beasts or forays by human marauders. Man, and 
especially a weary savage, is a heavy sleeper, so that it was well to have a 
friend in camp who slept as lightly as does the dog. And when the depth 
of winter or other occasion of want and perhaps famine arrived, and it be- 
gan to be needful to sacrifice their guardians for food, the first to go would 
be the ones least helpful and cared for. A dog whose gentler nature had 
made it the pet of the children would be hidden and shielded by them when 
the father’s stone ax was lifted; and, turning toward others of the pack, 
he would strike down last of all that animal which had courageously be- 
friended him in some encounter with a bear, or which was the keenest of 
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