146 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



No doubt the conditions in this particular sector were specially favour- 

 able. The Romans are always popular, and it has never been difficult to 

 stir up a lively interest in the search for any traces they may have left 

 behind them. Again, it has been of immense service to have available for 

 comparison and guidance the fruits of the labours of those who were 

 simiiltaneously working on analogous problems in England and on the 

 Continent. Finally, progress invariably tends to be more rapid when 

 there are visible landmarks by which the rate of advance can be reckoned, 

 and the Roman period is a period in which archaeology is continually making 

 contact with history — in which, indeed, the ultimate test of success is the 

 extent to which the two can be blended into one. In the nature of things 

 it is impossible that the last of these three advantages should ever be 

 enjoyed by students of epochs which cannot by any stretch of imagination 

 be brought into connexion with written record. With the remaining two 

 it is otherwise. In the first place I believe that public interest would 

 respond readily to stimulation — and the case of Traprain Law shows that 

 in such matters nothing succeeds like success. In the second, the oppor- 

 tunities for comparative study are already considerable, and are multi- 

 pl)dng under our very eyes. Only the other day we had the pleasure of 

 welcoming to Scotland as our pioneer professor of Prehistoric Archaeology 

 a scholar who has won his spurs in the Central European field. Now that 

 he has made his home in our midst we may fairly venture to ask him : 

 ' Are not Forth and Tweed, rivers of Scotland, better than all the waters 

 of the Danube ? ' If he can be persuaded to adopt. this point of view, I 

 am confident that the happiest results may be anticipated when he has 

 had time to organise research and to train the researchers. 



Professor Childe, I understand, has already been exploring Caithness and 

 the Orkneys. I am sure that, as he extends the range of his voyages of 

 discovery, he will be more and more deeply impressed with what I singled 

 out as one of the distinctive features of Scottish archaeology — the richness 

 of the prehistoric material that is still available for study. It may be 

 worth while glancing at the reasons for this wealth. In all ages the 

 distribution of population in a country is determined by economic con- 

 siderations. It is obvious that men will elect to dwell in the regions where 

 they can most readily obtain the means of subsistence, and it is equally 

 obvious that in every country these regions will vary periodically according 

 to the stage of civilisation that has been reached. To-day, for instance, 

 the English Midlands are blackened by the smoke of innumerable chimneys, 

 whereas in Roman times their damp and chilly soil was virtually un- 

 tenanted. Our prehistoric forefathers found much of Scotland thickly 

 wooded. The forests and the dense undergrowth must indeed have 

 rendered it altogether unfit for occupation. Until the use of metal, and 

 particularly of iron, had been adequately developed, systematic clearing 

 would be impossible. Consequently, as the survey of the Royal Com- 

 mission proceeds, it becomes increasingly plain that the prehistoric settlers 

 tended to congregate in the areas which, for climatic or geographical 

 reasons, were treeless in prehistoric times. But these are precisely the 

 areas in which, under modern conditions and judged by modern standards, 

 the land is least productive. As more fertile districts were opened up by 

 the felling of trees and the draining of marshes, they became less and less 



