1897.] on Early 3Ian in Scotland. 407 



lead to the extinction of the animal in tliat 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. Palasolithic 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 Palaeolrthic 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 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 the 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 inter- 

 mediate land of interglacial times, there had been a subsequent 

 elevation so that Britain again became a part of the continent of 

 EurojDC. If one may use the expression, a " Neolithic land bridge " was 

 produced, continental relations and climate were for a time re-estab- 

 lished, 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 100-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 seen 

 so distinctly on the coast of Scotland, that frequent oscillations changed 

 the relative positions of land and sea to each other. 



2 K 2 



