10 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



discovered in limestone caves, in the banks of 

 ancient rivers, and in the shell-mounds around 

 the Danish coast, that prehistoric Europeans 

 lived almost precisely the life now lived by the 

 Fuegians or the Australian blacks. But few of 

 us, I imagine, have realised the enormous length 

 of the epoch throughout which this stage of 

 utter savagery lasted. It is utterly impossible to 

 measure its length in years ; but every geologist 

 and anthropologist will support me when I say 

 that, when compared with the historical period, it 

 was of inconceivable duration. Probably it would 

 be no exaggeration to say that if you took the 

 last leaf of this book as representing the era of 

 civilisation, you might take all the other leaves as 

 representing, in equal proportion, different stages 

 of the epoch of pristine savagery. Now since 

 man had to live by the chase, and by the chase 

 only, throughout the greater part of this period, 

 it is no wonder that all his faculties of mind and 

 body became moulded to the environment of the 

 hunter. To such primitive savages the habits of 

 taking note of everything around them and of 

 drawing conclusions from what they observed 

 were absolutely essential. Under the immemo- 

 rial regime of the Stone Ages these were just 



