146 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. vi. 



trunk decays the hard resinous knots stand out in relief, 

 and taper to a point as they approach the central pith 

 of the tree, in the same way as those at Dtirnten. They 

 are, moreover, covered superficially by fibres of the 

 trunk crossing those of the knots at right angles, or 

 nearly so, precisely in the same way. The fossil 

 specimens have been proved, by microscopical exami- 

 nation, to be composed of the wood of the spruce. 

 Under these circumstances I have but little doubt of 

 their being knots out of a decayed fir -tree without 

 marks of the handiwork of man, and I cannot look upon 

 them as evidence of the existence of man in Switzerland 

 in interglacial times. 



The Late Pleistocene Mammalia. 



We pass now to the examination of the late Pleistocene 

 deposits in Great Britain, in which artificially chipped 

 implements, found in considerable numbers over a wide 

 area, testify to the presence of man in this country for a 

 very long period of time, reserving for the next chapter 

 the evidence on the point offered by the bone caverns. 



In the late Pleistocene river beds, and in the caves, 

 the fauna is the same, and both are referable to the same 

 geological horizon, marked by the arctic mammals being 

 in possession of the land, as may be seen in the follow- 

 ing table :- 1 



1 This is an abstract of those published by Dawkins and Sanford, British 

 Pleistocene Mammalia, Palseont. Soc., 1866, et seq.; Dawkins, Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. Lond. vols. xviii. et seq. 



