290 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. vm. 



General Conclusions as to Neolithic Culture in Britain. 



From the preceding pages the reader will gather a 

 distinct idea of the physical condition of Britain in the 

 Neolithic age, and of the manners and customs of the in- 

 habitants. The population was probably large, divided 

 into tribal communities possessed of fixed habita- 

 tions, and living principally on their flocks and herds, 

 acquainted with agriculture, and subsisting in a lesser 

 degree by hunting and fishing. The arts of spinning, 

 weaving, mining, and pottery-making were known, and 

 that of boat-building had advanced sufficiently far to 

 allow of voyages being made from France to Britain, 

 and from Britain to Ireland. Traffic was carried on by 

 barter, and stone axes were distributed over areas far 

 away from those in which the stone was found. Tombs 

 also were built, some of imposing grandeur, for the 

 habitation of the dead in the after-world, in which the 

 spirits were supposed to lead a life not very different 

 from that of the living, and at which they were wor- 

 shipped by the family or tribe, after the manner of the 

 Eed Indians and many African peoples. 



Neolithic Civilisation on the Continent. 



The traces of this civilisation have been discovered 

 in almost every part of Europe, under conditions which 

 prove that the manners and customs of the people were 

 tolerably uniform, and only presented those minor dif- 

 ferences which may be noted in the social state of the 

 present inhabitants. We may survey them from the 

 standpoint offered by the discoveries made in the pile- 

 dwellings of Switzerland, and at the same time com- 



