Page:Evolution of American Agriculture (Woodruff).djvu/16

12 that romantic period when the hairy denizens of the tree tops went through those changes that finally developed a creature bold enough to descend upon the ground, club in hand, and battle with the carnivorous beasts for the coveted right to live. We may well picture the first tree dweller that developed the human thumb—the thumb set so far forward on the hand and of such length that it could be opposed to the other fingers—and imagine the advantages he possessed over his fellows amid the leafy canopies. We may see him plucking the fruits and nuts with greater dexterity; swinging from limb to limb with greater certainty of grasp; clutching at the throat of his adversary with a deadlier grip; striking with the fist instead of slapping with an open paw; and, for the first time wielding a club in the enforcement of his developing will. How formidable this human handed tree dweller must have been to the other inhabitants of the forest! And how wonderful that provision of nature which transmitted the thumb on down the line of his descendants!

The law of claw and fang decided disputes among the tree dwellers and, most of all, it decided the question of mating. The human-handed one, by reason of his greater ability to fight—through a better courage, generated by a consciousness of physical superiority—compelled the reproductonreproduction [sic] of his type through the more perfect females of his kind.

Some have said that hunger first drove the developing "man" to forsake the trees and seek his food upon the ground, but I incline to the belief that the greater range of experiences possible to the human-handed one so developed his mental