epoch when articulate speech was being
developed. Our ancestors of this epoch inhabited a necessarily
restricted tropical territory, and subsisted upon raw nuts and fruits.
They had no knowledge of the uses of fire. All existing races of men had
advanced beyond this condition before the opening of the historical
period.

Fire.

The Middle Period of Savagery began with a knowledge of the uses of
fire. This wonderful discovery enabled the developing race to extend its
habitat almost indefinitely, and to include flesh, and in particular
fish, in its regular dietary. Man could now leave the forests, and
wander along the shores and rivers, migrating to climates less
enervating than those to which he had previously been confined.
Doubtless he became an expert fisher, but he was as yet poorly equipped
for hunting, being provided, probably, with no weapon more formidable
than a crude hatchet and a roughly fashioned spear. The primitive races
of Australia and Polynesia had not advanced beyond this middle status of
savagery when they were discovered a few generations ago. It is obvious,
then, that in dealing with the further progress of nascent civilization
we have to do with certain favoured portions of the race, which sought
out new territories and developed new capacities while many tribes of
their quondam peers remained static and hence by comparison seemed to
retrograde.

Bow and arrow.

The next great epochal discovery, in virtue of which a portion of the
race advanced to the Upper Status of Savagery, was that of the bow and
arrow,--a truly wonderful implement. The possessor of this device could
bring down the fleetest animal and could defend himself against the most
predatory. He could provide himself not only with food but with
materials for clothing and for tent-making, and thus could migrate at
will back from the seas and large rivers, and far into inhospitable but
invigorating temperate and sub-Arctic regions. The meat diet, now for
the first time freely available, probably contributed, along with the
stimulating climate, to increase the physical vigour and courage of this
highest savage, thus urging him along the paths of progress.
Nevertheless many tribes came thus far and no further, as witness the
Athapascans of the Hudson's Bay Territory and the Indians of the valley
of the Columbia.

Pottery.

We now come to the marvellous discovery that enabled our ancestor to
make such advances upon the so