November 22, 1894] 



NATURE 



91 



I do not consider that there is any evidence of the existence of 

 the direct descendants of Palasolithic man amonj; the osteo- 

 logical remains of Neolithic or subsequent date in Britain. 

 Here he seems tojpe as extinct as many of his contemporary 

 animals of the late Pleistocene period ; this may not be the ca<e 

 with respect to his existence in other parts of Europe. Whether 

 he has still representatives in America, as surmised by I'rof. 

 Boyd Dawkins and some American anthropologists, is outside 

 the scope of the present lecture. 



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

 is separated from the previous one by a space of time measur- 

 able only by the changes occurring in the interval. Great Britain 

 and Ireland had once more become islands almost of the same 

 dimensions as at the present day, with a moister and more con- 

 tinental climate — hotter in summer and colder in winter — ■ 

 abundant forests extending as far as the extreme north of Scot- 

 land, and numerous morasses and peat bogs. Not less signi- 



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. P'lints used for implement-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 m.ide, probably by barter, Jadite or 

 Nephrite implements having been found in Britain, which Mr. 

 Kudler has shown may have been 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. 



iralktr fri;,^,. 



Fig. j6. 



ficant was the advance in civilisation man had made since 

 Palfcolithic times, as we now find him dwelling in fixed habita- 

 tions, with a knowledge of the arts and agriculture, with 

 domestic animals, and with stone implements of a much more 

 developed character, as he had now learned to smooth them by 

 grinding and polishing. 



The^e Neolithic people, as they are called, lived in camps, 

 surrounded by ditches and ramparts, on the to| s or sides of 

 hills, or in suitable valleys. The camps were intersected with 

 numerous drains or ditches, which would show that the 

 climate was moist. Inside the camps they hollowed out pits, 

 in or round which they dwelt. Excellent examples of the 

 encampments or villages of the same Neolithic people, but of 

 a much later date, have been discovered and described by 

 General Pitt-Rivers in his excavations near Rushmore, from 

 the main outlines of which some idea may be formed of what 

 their earlier dwelling-places were probably like (Fig. i6). 



NO. 1308, VOL. 5 ll 



They buried their dead in caves, which had been used a 

 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 ihem, 

 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 

 carvinijs are seldom fuund, and are very inferior to those of late 

 PahTiolithic times. 



O.-teological 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, especially in Wilts and Gloucestershire, the part of the 

 country occupied by the Drobuni, or Silures, at the beginning 

 of the historic period. They have been foundjin considerable 



