88 Revieics — Dr. T. R. Holmes — Ancient Britain. 



chapters of geologj'. la his interesting introductory sketch of the 

 progress of research, the author pays tribute to Sir Richai'd Colt 

 Hoare and William Cunnington (sen.), with whose labours in Wiltshire 

 " the era of scientific investigation may be said to have begun." 

 From the materials since accumulated, by Prestwich, Pengelly, 

 Sir John Evans, Lord Aveburj-, Canon Greenwell, Pitt-Rivers, 

 Professor Boyd Dawkins, E. B. Tylor, and many others, it is con- 

 sidered that we know enough about sepulchres, skulls, coins, about 

 implements, weapons, ornaments, urns, place-names, and folklore, "to 

 justify an attempt to create a synthetical work, the aim of which 

 shall be to portray in each successive stage and to trace the evolution 

 of the culture — nay, in some sort even to construct a history — of 

 prehistoric Britain." With this aim we are in full sympathy. A 

 judicial summary of our knowledge is ever an advantage to progress, 

 and we agree with the author that "Not only is the subject 

 fascinating ; it is an indispensable introduction to the history of 

 England." 



That much remains to be learnt is freely admitted by the author. 

 Following the Introduction he deals with the Paleeolithic age, and 

 with "those who, in hard struggle with nature and with fierce beasts, 

 were the iinconscious founders of European civilization." Here we 

 are brought face to face with many controverted questions, with 

 the relations of man to the Glacial epoch and with his origin. 

 Palaeolithic implements identical in form and character with British 

 specimens, fabricated perhaps at widelj' separated periods, but many 

 of them of great antiquity, have been found in various regions of the 

 world ; but " the original home of the race is unknown." 



The author gives a good account of the main features of the Ice 

 Age as intei-preted by geologists ; a task by no means easy, considering 

 the divergence of views on the extent of ice-sheets, on movements of 

 upheaval and depression, and on interglacial periods. Here indeed, as 

 elsewhere, we may compliment him on his impartial treatment, his 

 laborious research, and the full references he gives to the views of 

 others, whether or not he agrees with them. 



When man first entered Britain the whole country may have stood 

 at least 600 feet above its present level, or it may have been no more 

 than 70 feet. Thus at the start the author calls attention to con- 

 tradictory views expressed in different volumes of the Victoria History 

 of England. In the latter case it is supposed that man entered across 

 a narrow strait formed during an early stage in the Glacial epoch, 

 the channel having been cut by overflow from the north European 

 drainage that was then barred from escaping northward by the ISorth 

 Sea ice-sheet.' A greater elevation than 70 feet, perhaps a subsequent 

 elevation, seems needed to explain the deeply eroded channels filled 

 with Glacial Drift that have been found in East Anglia. 



There is still diversity of opinion with regard to the relation of the 

 Mammoth to the Glacial period. It has not, however, been definitely 

 obtained in any Pliocene deposit ; even in the Cromer Forest-bed, 

 although some specimens, as Mr. E. T. Newton has remarked, 



> Cf. C. Keid, " Origin of the British Flora," 1899, p. 39. 



