546 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



baar, the mammoth, and the woolly rhinocei'os ; and they appear to 

 have- been driven along with these animals toward the north, through 

 the action of some geographical change whose magnitude we have 

 now no means of gauging. 



The Neolithic era marked the dawn of a new and higher civiliza- 

 tion. In many parts of the country, notably at Hardham in Sussex 

 and in Kent, many collections of polished stone implements have been 

 found, such us stone axes and adzes, chisels, gouges, small saws, ham- 

 mers, awls for boring, stone picks for turning up the soil, pestles, mor- 

 tars, querns, and spindle-whorls. Needles have also been found, which 

 imply a knowledge of the art of sewing ; and cups and various other 

 vessels of rude earthenware, which show that these old-world folks 

 could ply the potter's craft with a considerable degree of deftness. 

 The bones found show also that they no longer depended for a preca- 

 rious subsistence altogether upon the spoils of the chase, but that they 

 were herdsmen and fishermen as well. They possessed the horse, a 

 small short-horned ox, two kinds of swine, goats, and horned sheep, 

 with dogs of a large breed. In architecture they were unquestionably 

 far behind, for their dwellings seem to have consisted of pits roofed 

 with wattle. The remains of these ancient Neolithic builders are 

 plentifully scattered over the country. They were all built or rather 

 scooped out upon one plan. There was a circular shaft for an en- 

 trance, going down to a depth of from seven to eight feet, five to seven 

 feet wide at the bottom, and narrowing to three at the top ; and round 

 this was a chamber or cluster of chambers. In these huts are found a 

 variety of the polished stone implements mentioned above, bones of 

 the domesticated animals, and shreds of pottery. In north Kent there 

 is a series of vertical shafts sunk in the chalk ; but these seem to 

 have been rather flint- quarries than the homes of our Neolithic fore- 

 fathers. 



In the north of Scotland, modified perhaps to suit the greater in- 

 clemency of the climate, the Neolithic dwellings are somewhat different, 

 and take the form of massive circular huts or burghs, as they are called. 

 In these are found the same stone implements and the same bones of 

 animals. The flint of which these stone implements are made was 

 obtained by quarrying for the flint nodules in the chalk. Many of 

 these mines with the mining tools still remain, with great quantities 

 of chips and splinters ; which show that the flint implements were, 

 partially at least, manufactured on the spot where the flint was ob- 

 tained. 



In some instances, caves seem to have been used as dwellings by 

 the Neolithic inhabitants of Europe ; and, where not employed as a shel- 

 ter for the living, they seem to have been frequently selected, when 

 within reach, as a resting-place for the dead. In these cave-mausoleums, 

 numerous skeletons of both sexes and of all ages are found. Where 

 no cave was to be had, the dead, as our readers are already aware, were 



