PRIMITIVE MAN : II. NEOLITHIC MAN. 301 



•w'lio formed tlieni could a:1apt themselves to their surronndings, 

 and make use of the most suitable materials at hand. The lavas 

 of the volcanic series vrould probably be tougher and more 

 durable than flint, but would not be capable of being ground to 

 such a fine cutting edge, nor of receiving such a high polish. 



So far as I know there are no traces of lake dwellings in our 

 district, but there are numerous relics of stone built villages and 

 forts on the mountains. Some of the so-called villages may be 

 recognizable as such by experienced archaeologists, but it requires 

 the eye of faith to enable ordinary observers to see in them 

 remains of human dwellings ; others, however, are undoubtedly 

 the ruins of stone-built houses that were clustered together within 

 a walled enclosure. The sites of some of the fortified villages are 

 exceedingly well chosen for defensive purposes, and where neces- 

 sary the natural features have been supplemented by one or more 

 deep trenches. 



Stone tumuli, or cairns, and barrows, or mounds of earth, 

 which have been used as places of burial, also occur ; these ancient 

 monuments and their contents have been described in detail by 

 local archeeologists. In the so-called Druid's Circle, near Keswick, 

 and possibly one or two more, we have examples of pre-historic 

 temples for the purpose of worship, although doubts have been 

 expressed on this point. There is, in the Keswick Museum of 

 Local N"atural History, a rudely chipped stone club, which may 

 have been used for the sacred pui-pose of slaying the animals 

 offered in saci'ifice. This club, which was found at the stone 

 circle near Keswick, has been formed out of a fragment of 

 St. John's quartz felsite, and consists of a handle about 9 inches 

 long by 3 inches in diameter ; at the end of this handle there is a 

 bulb-shaped knob, about 5 inches in diameter, and a well directed 

 blow from such a weapon would no doubt be sufficient to smash 

 the skull of an ox. The fact that stone axes or celts have also 

 been found in the same locality as the above mentioned club, the 

 existence of an inner enclosure, within the stone circle, and the 

 entire absence of evidence that the circle was ever used for the 

 purpose of sepulture, prove, I think, that it was used for worship 

 alone. 



Mr. S. R. Pattison, F.G.S., writes -.— 



Mr. Mello, as is usual with him, gives much more for us to 

 learn than to object to. In the present timely, comprehensive, 

 and quasi-judicial summary of the known facts of the earliest 



