Part 20 (1/2)

(_c_) Trees that offer protection from the sun and rain, and branches that are tough and strong.

(_d_) Suitable sticks for primitive implements and weapons.

(_e_) Gra.s.ses, barks, willows, rushes, and other tough and flexible fibers for basketry.

(_f_) The topographical features which later are to be represented in sand.

(_g_) What animals now live in uncultivated places.

2. To a brook or river to find--

(_a_) The best drinking-places for animals.

(_b_) The best fords.

(_c_) The best places to build bridges.

(_d_) Stones for primitive implements and weapons.

(_e_) How the river grinds the stones.

(_f_) What the river carries in its water.

(_g_) What plants and animals may be seen there.

3. To a circus to see the wild animals, so as to be better able to realize what the animals that lived when the Tree-dwellers did were like.

4. To a farm to find--

(_a_) What animals live there, how they are taken care of, and how they differ from wild animals.

(_b_) What plants are cultivated on the farm and in the gardens, how they are cultivated, and how they differ from the wild plants that can be found in uncultivated spots.

5. To a gravel bed or stone quarry to find--

(_a_) What kinds of stone are there.

(_b_) How stone is quarried and what it is used for.

(_c_) A problem with reference to how the gravel bed or the stone quarry was made.

SUPPLEMENTARY FACTS

The child asks many questions, some of which are difficult to answer.

Since what has been ascertained regarding the period during which the Tree-dwellers lived is not contained in books that are generally available, it has seemed best to present at this time such summarized statements as will furnish the teacher with the facts that she may need.

ANIMAL LIFE

_Extinct Species._ Among the animals of the mid-Pleistocene period that have since become extinct were the Irish deer; the big-nosed, the small-nosed, and the woolly rhinoceros; the mammoth; the cave-bear; and a sabre-toothed felis (_Machairodus latidens_), sometimes, though incorrectly, referred to as the cave-tiger.

_The Rhinoceros._ The big-nosed and the small-nosed rhinoceros came to western Europe from the south. The former came the earlier and stayed until the late Pleistocene period, when the later cavemen hunted the reindeer. During this period it became extinct. As the climate became severe, both species may have migrated south each winter. It would have been possible, however, for them to remain, for they were well adapted to a cold climate. It is interesting to know that many of our popular tales of dragons originated in connection with the discoveries of the huge bones of these creatures, which could be accounted for in no other way.