266 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. vin. 



very improbable that the Cave-men were in any way 

 represented by the Neolithic tribes, who are the first to 

 appear in Prehistoric Europe. The former possessed 

 no domestic animals, just as the latter are not known to 

 have been acquainted with any of the extinct species, 

 with the exception of the Irish elk. The former lived 

 as hunters, unaided by the dog, in Britain, while it was 

 part of the continent ; the latter appear as farmers and 

 herdsmen after it became an island. Their states of 

 culture, as we shall see presently, were wholly different. 

 "We might expect on d priori grounds that there would 

 be an overlap, and that the former would have been 

 absorbed into the mass of the newcomers. There is, 

 however, no evidence of this. It seems far more probable 

 that they were kept apart by the feelings of antipathy 

 which we have described in the last chapter as existing 

 between the Eskimos and the Eed Indians.- From the 

 facts at present before us we may conclude that they 

 belonged to two races of men, living in Europe in succes- 

 sive times, and separated from each other by an interval 

 sufficiently great to allow of the above-mentioned changes 

 taking place in the physical conditions of Britain. 



Man, as he appears before us in the Prehistoric age, 

 and in the Neolithic stage of culture, is far advanced 

 in the upward path which mankind traversed in gaining 

 the civilisation enjoyed by the higher races of the pre- 

 sent time. His position may conveniently be ascertained 

 by dealing first of all with his habitations. 



Hut Circles. 



In various parts of the country are to be seen clusters 

 of circular depressions, very frequently within the ram-* 



