PRIMITIVE MAN : II. NEOLITHIC MAN. 293 



One finds instances of that kind of thing among the modern 

 savages. When Mr. Woodford came back from the Solomon 

 Islands he said he was struck by the way in which the natives of 

 one of those islands had arrived at a remarkable state of per- 

 fection in regard to their ornatnents, implements and tools ; and 

 he found that this was not due to superiority of race, but was 

 rather a kind of outburst of genius on the part of a single member 

 of the race, that, in fact, the whole of the ornaments peculiar to 

 that part of the islands were due to the superior powers of a single 

 man. 



Then in regard to domestic animals, with that subject I have a 

 good deal more to do. In the accumulations I have examined 

 there is no difiiculty whatever in recognizing the remains of 

 domestic animals. The skeletons were in a remarkable state o£ 

 preservation and so numerous, and the skulls so good, that there- 

 could be no doubt ; but I cannot help thinking that in many other 

 instances there is yet room for doubt as to whether the jDeople 

 connected with the so-called Neolithic types really had domestic 

 animals to the extent that is sometimes said, while the Paljeolithic 

 peoples had none whatever. For instance, take the case of the 

 dog. It is almost impossible, unless the remains are exti'emely 

 good, to distinguish large dogs from the ordinary varieties of 

 wolf ; and it is extremely difficiilt in those remains that are found in 

 the refuse heaps in Denmark to be quite certain that these may not 

 belong to some of the wild races of wolves that wandered about at 

 night and nibbled these bones in the way they ai'e nibbled. Again, 

 it is impossible to say whether some of these canine remains in the 

 Neolithic deposits are not the remains of dojnestic dogs. Lately, 

 evidence of a Very curious nature has been accumulating in regard 

 to the Celtic short-horn, that small race of cattle which is said by 

 many people to be peculiarly characteristic of the Neolithic time, 

 and to have been brought into this part of the world by this 

 supposed immigration of the Neolithic people. Several instances 

 have come lately from the London district of doubtful remains of 

 small oxen indistinguishable from the typical Neolithic short- 

 horn; but only recently we have found the very first evidence that 

 seems likely to prove conclusive, and that has been discovered 

 by Dr. Leeson, of Twickenham, who has been watching larg<> 

 excavations in that neighbourhood. Under the true Thames 

 gravel deposits, in a bed of loam containing the bison, the reindeer, 

 and the horse, Dr. Leeson has found bones which he cannot dis- 



