Ray Audette said: >>Obviously you never felt the need to wear a batting helmet while playing baseball ( which explains a lot - I couldn't resist;)). A baseball can easily kill a full grown man. A rock of similar weight would fly even faster being much smaller and thus be even deadlier. >>Many people kill large animals without dogs using spears alone ( i.e.. Tutsi warriors who want to become eligible to marry by killing a lion). A few well placed rocks first makes the whole thing easier. >From what I have read, earlier man may have dug out pit traps, covered with brush, then driven large animals---deer, antelope, horses, moose, bison, etc.--- toward these traps. One large animal falling into such a trap could make food for many people. Techniques for making these traps, frightening the animals, and causin them to run in the desired direction of the traps could have been perfected in short order. Techniques for drying meat could also have been used---both are described in Jean M. Auel's books. Auel also describes the use of a sling and stones to expertly bring down hyenas, weasels, wolverines, and a wide array of small animals, and even wolves. I don't doubt that man living by the sea or lakes would have caught a lot of fish with bare hands, sticks, branches, and later baskets or traps made from various plants. Accounts from just 100 years ago in Ohio attest to the incredible abundance of fish----lakes, rivers, and streams teaming with fish, so thick with fish that they were body to body and you could reach in with your bare hands and take some out!!! This old book from 1900 in Ohio speaks of a simlar abundance of birds and other small animals; it lists the amounts people often brought in in a day (with technology, but my point is that there was no shortage of animals to feast on!!). If it was like that just 100 years ago, just think what it could have been like in America before the human population reached what it did in 1900... then think what it could have been like when animals out-numbered humans. The more animals, the easier they are to procure and the more margin for error when you are tying to down them with a rock or a sharp stick, or you are trying to chase them toward a pit trap. Thought for food, Rachel Matesz Rachel Matesz