254 



EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. 



[CHAP. vin. 



islands of Anglesea and of "Wight (Fig. 95), and the 

 estuary of the Thames to the west of a line drawn due 



FIG. 95. Neolithic Britain. 



north from Felixstow. The other modification in the 

 contour of Great Britain and Ireland consists of a narrow 

 strip parallel to the present coasts. The forest of yew, 

 oak, ash, birch, Scotch fir, and alder, extended from the 

 Prehistoric sea-level up the mouths of the rivers, and 

 joined that covering the general surface of the country. 

 In the marshes of the lower Thames it is met with at 

 a few feet above low- water mark. 



This forest growth is proved to belong to the Neo- 

 lithic division of the Prehistoric period by the presence 

 of animals originally domestic, and introduced by the 

 Neolithic tribes, the Celtic short-horn and the sheep or 

 goat, as well as by the absence of the Pleistocene mam- 



