DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS a1 
little ones were, and most of the carcass was worthless when at 
last he had obtained it. 
Primitive man was not long in discovering that his chief ad- 
vantage lay in his wits. He was the only animal that knew 
enough to pick up a club and use it as a weapon, either of 
offense or defense. He was the only one that could manage 
fire! He was the only one that could hurl a stone or make a 
machine to send a projectile of any sort.? 
By aid of various devices, such as weapons and traps, the 
savage continued to subsist by his wits, and he was hard on the 
species he hunted. As a consequence game not only grew more 
scarce but it gradually learned the methods of this dangerous 
enemy, who struck where he was not, and became exceedingly 
wary, till scarcity and starvation were inevitable, calling for a 
fresh draft upon the wits. 
Need for help in the hunt. The hunting habits of the wolf 
must have early attracted the attention of our barbarian ances- 
tors. His ability to trail by the scent and his habit of hunting 
in packs, as well as his fleetness and his relentless endurance, 
could not have failed to impress themselves upon hungry hunters 
in very early times, and to possess a pack of such helpers must 
have been a primitive ambition. 
Fortunately the nature of the wolf is such that he is easily 
tamed if taken young, and he succeeds well in captivity. His 
intelligence is of an order that responds to that of man in his 
hunting temper, and it is not strange that wherever primitive 
1 Monkeys and baboons will warm themselves by a fire, but do not know 
enough to replenish it. Fire was almost certainly at first obtained from volca- 
noes. Its production by friction and by flint and steel must have been much 
later achievements. 
2 The ingenuity of primitive man in making projectiles is truly remarkable. 
Bows and arrows, blowguns, and afterwards firearms, are progressive tributes 
to increasing intelligence; but of all projectiles, the boomerang is the most 
wonderful, considering the grade of savage that produced it. The writer has 
been told by travelers who have seen it done, that a skillful thrower could 
strike a mark with the boomerang, which would then return and fall near the 
thrower’s foot. 
