EARLY MAN IN SCOTLAND 199 



of the sea ? If the latter, then the further question arises, 

 How was the transit effected ? Neolithic man, so far as is 

 known, had no other means of conveyance by water than 

 was afforded by a canoe dug out of the stem of a tree. 

 Although such rude boats might in calm weather serve as a 

 means of transporting a few individuals across a river or 

 narrow strait from one shore to the other, they can scarcely 

 be regarded as fitted for an extensive migration of people ; 

 still less as a means of conveying their pigs, dogs, goats, and 

 oxen. Hence one is led to the hypothesis that, after the 

 sea had submerged the intermediate land of interglacial 

 times, there had been a subsequent elevation, so that Britain 

 again became a part of the continent of Europe. If one 

 may use the expression, a " Neolithic land bridge " was 

 produced, continental relations and climate were for a time 

 re-established, and a free immigration of Neolithic man with 

 his domestic animals became possible. This may have been 

 at the period when an abundant forest growth in Scotland 

 succeeded the elevation of what is now called the loo-foot 

 terrace. There is no evidence of the presence of Neolithic 

 man in Scotland until about that period. Before this 

 island with its surrounding and protecting " silver streak " 

 settled down to the present distribution of land and water, 

 there are ample data, as is shown by the three sea beaches 

 at different levels so distinctly seen on the coast of Scotland, 

 that frequent oscillations changed the relative positions of 

 land and sea to each other. 



From the consideration of what may be called the 

 biological data, the conclusion seems not to be justified, 

 that because climatic changes had led to a disappearance of 

 certain characteristic Palaeolithic mammals, but by no means 

 of all, therefore Palaeolithic man had vanished along with 

 them. When Neolithic man reached Western Europe, he in 

 all likelihood found his Palaeolithic predecessor settled there, 

 and a greater or less degree of fusion took place between 

 them. Hence, as the present inhabitants of Britain may 

 claim the men both of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages as 

 their ancestors, it is possible that as Neolithic man migrated 

 northward into Scotland he may have carried with him a 

 strain of Palaeolithic blood. 



