6 9 8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



"Cave-hunting," published in 1874, he has 

 cleared the way for the present inquiry into 

 the conditions of life, the growth in culture, 

 and the relation to history of primeval man 

 in Britain. The present work is copiously 

 illustrated, and its author admits that it has 

 defects due partially to the nature of the 

 subject, but chiefly to the swiftness with 

 which our knowledge of early man is being 

 enlarged by new discoveries. The author 

 has no favorite theory to advocate, and 

 writes with caution in reference to chronol- 

 ogy, considering that there is little ground 

 for placing confidence in dates. As to the 

 antiquity of man, he thinks that we have 

 far from settled views upon the subject. 

 The scientific problem now is how far fos- 

 sil man can be traced back into the Tertiary. 

 There are those who hold that the early in- 

 dications of the human race go back to the 

 Miocene or Pliocene period, but Professor 

 Dawkins finds no trustworthy indications 

 earlier than the Pleistocene, or most recent 

 geological period. He considers that on bi- 

 ological grounds it was improbable, if not 

 impossible, that man should appear much 

 earlier than the period marked by arrow- 

 heads, flint scrapers, etc., an opinion that he 

 shares with some of the most competent ge- 

 ologists of the present time. The earliest 

 man met with in Britain Professor Dawkins 

 states is the hunter of the old Drift period, 

 who had for contemporaries the grizzly bear, 

 spotted hyena, lion, hippopotamus, rhinoce- 

 ros, elephant, and most of the animals now 

 existing. England and Ireland were then 

 one, and were united to the continent, and 

 possessed vastly different climatic conditions 

 from the present. This primitive man was 

 spread over a wide range of country, of 

 which Britain was but a small part, and must 

 have previously existed a considerable pe- 

 riod of time. His successor was a man of a 

 much higher type, who appears to have been 

 equally widespread, and to have been pos- 

 sessed of much better and more varied tools 

 and considerable artistic ability, as shown 

 by his carvings in bone and ivory. Profes- 

 sor Dawkins regards him as the direct an- 

 cestor of the present Esquimau, and points 

 out in support of his position a number of 

 striking resemblances. The Pleistocene pe- 

 riod closes with the diappearance of these 

 cave-men, and neolithic civilization opens 



with the prehistoric farmer and herdsman. 

 At the time of his advent, the British Islands 

 had attained nearly their existing shape, and 

 climatic conditions were closely allied to the 

 present. These men were short, well built, 

 black-haired, and of swarthy complexion. 

 They came wandering westward from the 

 East, with flocks and herds and some knowl- 

 edge of agriculture. Before them the mild 

 and unwarlike progenitors of the Esquimau 

 fled, leaving but little trace behind them. 

 The conquerors brought with them many of 

 the arts that raise man above the brute, and 

 overrun the greater part of Europe, and a con- 

 siderable portion of Asia and Africa. They 

 were in turn displaced by the fair-haired 

 Celts, the van of the Aryan migration, who 

 exterminated, moved them aside, or enslaved 

 them. A mixture of the two races occurred 

 over the greater part of Europe, producing 

 the main characteristics of the peoples of 

 modern Europe. To the neolithic period 

 succeeded that of bronze, and this in turn 

 gave place to that of iron, the age which 

 includes our present civilization. With the 

 beginning of the historic period, the work 

 of the archaeologist yields to that of the his- 

 torian, and at this point Professor Dawkins 

 takes leave of his subject. 



Reports of the Peabody Museum of Amer- 

 ican Archaeology and Ethnology, in 

 Connection with Harvard University. 

 Vol.11. 1876-"79. Cambridge : printed 

 by order of the Board of Trustees. 1880. 

 Pp. 775. 



This goodly volume contains the tenth, 

 eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth annual re- 

 ports, and covers the last four years of 

 museum-work. And very able and fruitful 

 has been this work, as directed by the zeal- 

 ous skill of its curator, Professor Putnam, 

 and the craniologist, Mr. Carr, his assistant. 

 This book constitutes a no mean monument 

 of home work done in American archaeology. 

 Did space suffice, it would be a pleasant 

 task to review these reports at length. Be- 

 sides a good deal of matter which merely 

 concerns the shop-work of the institution, 

 we find twenty-two articles all devoted to 

 American archaeology and ethnology, and 

 each one containing results of original re- 

 search. Thus there are papers of first-rate 

 significance under such names as Putnam, 



