The Influence of Geology on Human 



Development 



By Gerard Fowke 



OR primitive man shelter was as necessary as food. His 

 natural home was near the rivers and seas, in the moun- 

 tains and forests. In the proper season he could conduct 

 extensive hunts on the plains, but in winter he must return 

 to rough or timbered country where he might find protec- 

 tion from inclement weather. Where caves existed, they were utilized; 

 where there was no such natural refuge, an artificial one had to be 

 provided. This at first was of brush and leaves, later of bark, finally 

 of timber. 



This necessity constrained him until he had learned the art of 

 preparing the hides of animals in a way that would render them 

 sufficiently durable and resistant to be made into tents. In the 

 eastern hemisphere he next learned how to domesticate a few of the 

 animals around him, and thus becoming to some extent independent 

 of natural resources, he no longer feared to move out into the natural 

 meadows. 



Presently he discovered how to convert raw ore into iron, and 

 became a farmer; and when he could bring into use other minerals, 

 as clay and stone, he became manufacturer and trader. 



This process of development was governed and directed through- 

 out by the geology of the regions in which man found himself placed, 

 or into which he moved of his own volition. On the coasts and along 

 the rivers his brain had no higher stimulus and his hands no better 

 occupation than the invention and completion of contrivances for 

 capturing the fish and other sea products upon which he subsisted; 

 while in his home life his ingenuity had no higher play than in the 

 procurement of the few objects that were required for clothing, or in 

 the preparation of the food which he ate in the crevices and holes 

 where he found a retreat from cold and darkness. 



In those lands where the upheaval of the earth's crust has formed 

 mountain ranges bordering on or surrounded by rugged and broken 

 country, or where the character of the soil, which depends on geological 

 structure, favors the growth of extensive forests, the manner of living 

 is of necessity very different. All animate nature is in a state of 



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