1894.] on Early British Races. 255 



logists, is an interesting question, but does not come within the scope 

 of this lecture. 



The next period at which we find remains of man in Britain is 

 separated from the previous one by a space of time measurable only 

 by the changes occurring in the interval. Great Britain and Ireland 

 had again become islands almost of the same dimensions as at 

 the present day, but with a moister and more continental climate 

 — hotter in summer and colder in winter — abundant forests extending 

 as far as the extreme north of Scotland, and numerous morasses and 

 peat bogs. Not less significant was the advance in civilisation man 

 had made since Palaeolithic times, as we now find him dwelling 

 in fixed habitations, with a knowledge of the arts and agriculture, 

 with domestic animals, and with stone implements not only of the 

 earlier type but of a much more developed character, as he had 

 now learned to smooth them by grinding and polishing. 



These Neolithic people, as they are called, lived on the tops or 

 sides of hills or in suitable valleys. Their camping grounds were 

 intersected with numerous drains or ditches, which would show that 

 the climate was moist. Inside the camp they hollowed out pits, in 

 or round which they dwelt. From these camps have been obtained 

 spindle whorls and bone combs toothed at one end, showing that 

 they were acquainted with the arts of spinning and weaving, bone 

 needles, fragments of coarse pottery made by hand and not turned 

 on the wheel, either plain or ornamented with simple lines or dots, 

 bones of the roe, red deer, dog, goat, short-horned ox, horse, pig, &c, 

 and fish, but no trace of metal is found. Of all their implements the 

 stone axe is, perhaps, the most important. Flints used for imple- 

 ment-making were now often quarried from below the soil, with 

 antlers of deer as picks. The implements were distributed over 

 districts far removed from where they were made, probably by 

 barter ; thus, Jadite or Nephrite implements have been found in 

 Britain, which Mr. Rudler has shown were probably obtained from 

 Switzerland, Silesia or Styria. They possessed canoes formed out 

 of the trunks of trees, in which they probably reached this country 

 from the Continent. 



They buried their dead in caves which had been used as 

 dwellings, in their camps, and in chambered and unchambered 

 barrows. The most characteristic British barrows of this period are 

 of long oval shape, and often of large size, but Neolithic interments 

 are also found in circular barrows. The dead were buried in a 

 contracted or crouched position, and, with them, stone and bone 

 implements of various kinds, and pottery, which would seem to show 

 that these articles were intended for the use of the dead or their 

 spirits. Relics of art in the form of carvings are seldom found, and 

 are very inferior to those of late Palaeolithic times. 



Osteological remains of the Neolithic people are distributed all 

 over Britain, from the south of England to the extreme north of 

 Scotland. They are most numerous in the south-west of England 



