198 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



small ox, pig, goat, and perhaps the sheep, as is shown by 

 their osseous remains, were also naturalised in Britain. The 

 continuity of our island with the Continent by intermediate 

 land, which existed during Palaeolithic times, also became 

 severed, and a genial temperate climate replaced more or 

 less arctic conditions. 



Man, however, possesses a power of accommodation, and 

 of adapting himself to changes in his environment, such as 

 is not possessed by a mere animal. The locus of an animal 

 is regulated by the climate and the nature of the food, so 

 that a change of climate, which would destroy the special 

 food on which an animal lives, would lead to the extinction 

 of the animal in that locality. Man, on the other hand, is 

 omnivorous, and can sustain himself alike on the flesh of 

 seals, whales, and bears in the Arctic circle, and on the fruits 

 which ripen under a tropical sun. Man can produce fire to 

 cook his food and to protect himself from cold, and can also 

 manufacture clothing when necessary. Palaeolithic man has 

 left evidence that he had the capability to improve, for the 

 cave men were undoubtedly in advance of the men who 

 made the flint implements found in the river drifts. The 

 capacity of the few crania of Palaeolithic man which have 

 been preserved is quite equal to, and in some cases superior 

 to, that of modern savages. So far as regards the implements 

 which he manufactured and employed, Neolithic man showed 

 no material advance over the Palaeolithic cave-dweller. 



The association of the bones of domestic mammals, 

 which were not present in Palaeolithic strata, along with the 

 remains of Neolithic man, proves that additional species had 

 been introduced into Western Europe at a particular period, 

 probably by another race which had migrated northward and 

 westward ; but it by no means follows that Palaeolithic man had 

 of necessity disappeared prior to this migration, and that when 

 Neolithic man reached Western Europe he found it, as regards 

 his own species, a desolate solitude. How then did Neolithic 

 man with his associated animals find his way into Britain ? 



Was it whilst the land remained which connected 

 Britain with the Continent in interglacial times, and along 

 which Palaeolithic man had travelled, or was it at some 

 subsequent period, after the formation of intermediate arms 



