The Descent of Man

ting perhaps the art of making fire. (36. Sir J.
Lubbock, 'Prehistoric Times,' 2nd edit. 1869,
chaps. xv. and xvi. et passim. See also the excellent
9th Chapter in Tylor's 'Early History of
Mankind,' 2nd edit., 1870.) The Australian
boomerang is a good instance of one such independent
discovery. The Tahitians when first
visited had advanced in many respects beyond
the inhabitants of most of the other Polynesian
islands. There are no just grounds for the belief
that the high culture of the native Peruvians
and Mexicans was derived from abroad (37. Dr.
F. Muller has made some good remarks to this
effect in the 'Reise der Novara: Anthropolog.
Theil,' Abtheil. iii. 1868, s. 127.); many native
plants were there cultivated, and a few native
animals domesticated. We should bear in mind
that, judging from the small influence of most
missionaries, a wandering crew from some semi-civilised
land, if washed to the shores of
America, would not have produced any marked
effect on the natives, unless they had al-