66 
tish seemed to elude his weapons; that accidents and sickness attacked 
the strongest and ablest hunter, making him dependent for a time 
on his fellow-men ; and they insisted on an equitable division of food, 
permitting no one to hoard it while his companions starved. They 
did not accept real communism, which would have destroyefl all com- 
petition, all stimulus to individual enterjndse. Rather, they placed a 
73459 
A salinon-weir on the Cowicli.in river. Ji.C. (Photo hu Gentile.) 
high premium on skill in hunting, ranking it with prowess in war. 
But the vicissitudes of their migratory life, the necessity for close 
co-operation in order to provide tlie daily neecls, ];)roduced a freer 
distribution of wealtli, especially of food, and prevented those 
extremes of poverty on the one hand, and riches on tlie other, which 
are so apparent in more civilized countries. 
