176 Prehistoric and Savage Man S 



The Eskimo are a people possessing many peculiarities, 

 and it is very interesting to note that some of these exag- 

 gerate the characters of the highest races of mankind. The 

 pelvis differs from the European pelvis in an opposite direc- 

 tion to that by which the negro pelvis differs from the 

 European, and the same is the case with the proportions of 

 the Hmbs, while the skulls of the Esquimaux have the 

 narrowest nasal aperture of all races, being in this respect 

 the very opposite of the AustraHans. They have also large 

 brains. They have the very same habit of depicting their 

 hunts and game as had the Palaeolithic men, and Hke them 

 they sew, using sinews as their thread. 



Widely different was the condition of the races which 

 succeeded these earhest-known flint-makers. ^Vhen the 

 polished stone makers — the Neohthic men — inhabited Britain, 

 Ireland was separated off from it by the sea, though Anglesea 

 and the Isle of Wight formed parts of the English mainland, 

 which was no longer the home of the great beasts before 

 mentioned, though the brown and grizzly bears, wild boars, 

 wild cats, and the Irish elk still lingered, accompanied also 

 by the reindeer. 



Our Neohthic ancestors seem to have come into Europe 

 from the east, bringing with them domestic cattle (the dog, 

 hog, ox, goat, and sheep), with wheat, barley, millet, peas, 

 poppies, flax, apples, and pears, together with a knowledge of 

 the domestic arts of spinning, weaving, pottery-making, the 

 formation of carefully polished stone implements, with the 

 use of canoes, and the practice of trading, which would 

 account for the presence of jade from China. The Neohthic 

 age in Northern Europe probably existed down into a period 

 which is completely historical as regards its southern portion, 

 and the Neohthic men probably still live amongst us in our 

 Celtic, and certainly in our Iberian, races. 



The next ages were those wherein metal was used, first 



