90 Revieus — Dr. T. R. Holmes — Ancient Britain. 



connected the kingdom of man with the rest of the animal world" 

 (Phil. Trans., 1907, B, p. 337). 



While there is much that is doubtful concerning the Palteolithic 

 inhabitants of Britain, there are sufficient facts to enable the author to 

 picture something of their mode of life and culture. He remarks 

 that " the close of the British Paloeolithic age is veiled in obscurity." 

 Nevertheless, he is doubtful about any great break between that and 

 Neolithic times ; doubtful also as to the physical conditions, whether 

 Britain was so upraised as to be almost connected with the Continent, 

 as suggested by the depth of alluvium in many river-valleys and by 

 the evidence of submerged forests. After reviewing the evidence he 

 concludes — "Therefore those of us who cling to the belief that the 

 Neolithic immigrants who first ventured to launch their frail canoes on 

 the narrow Channel and ran them aground on the Kentish coast may 

 have found the new-born island inhabited by men of an older race have 

 some reason to show for our pious faith." 



We do not propose to follow the author in detail in his accounts of 

 the Neolithic and later ages. Nevertheless, his chapters are by no 

 means devoid of geological interest in connexion with the physical 

 features, the inhabitants, the flint-mines of Brandon and Cissbury, 

 and the pit-dwellings. 



In his account of the Bronze age he does not accept Sir Norman 

 Lockyer's views regarding Stonehenge, nor does he agree in any 

 respect with Mr. Clement Keid's views on the subject of Mictis, Ictis, 

 and Yectis. Mr. Reid had assumed that they indicated but one 

 island, the Isle of Wight ; and that about 2,000 years ago the Isle 

 of Wight, near Yarmouth, was connected with the mainland near 

 Lymington by ledges of Bembridge limestone, which formed a natural 

 stone-causeway, available at low-water for the transport of tin from 

 Cornw^all. Other observers on various grounds had previously 

 suggested that Ictis, rather than St. Michael's Mount, was the Isle 

 of Wight. Alfred Tylor, in 1884 [Archceologia, xlviii, pp. 230-6), 

 had urged the claims of Bembridge and Brading Harbour as the port 

 of Ictis. Our present author strongly condemns these suggestions, 

 and, discussing the whole subject in considerable detail, maintains- 

 that the evidence favours the old view that St. Michael's Mount was 

 the veritable Ictis. He agrees with Lyell, Pengelly, and Ussher, 

 " that since the time when tin was shipped at Ictis, St. Michael's 

 Mount has undergone no sensible change." Lyell had observed that 

 " It still affords a good port, daily freqiiented by vessels, where 

 cargoes of tin are sometimes taken on board, after having been 

 transported, as in the olden time, at low tide across the isthmus." 

 John Phillips, in a paper entitled "Thoughts on Ancient Metallurgy 

 and Mining in Brigantia and other parts of Britain" (Proc. 

 Yorksh. Phil. Soc. for March, 1848), concluded that at first "the 

 only route for the tin of Cornwall to the Mediterranean was by 

 sea to the Avestern parts of Spain"; and that at a later period 

 "the track by land through Gaul to Massilia was preferred." 

 If we accept this view we need not disagree with the remarks of 

 Alfred Tylor that tin was sometimes carried by coasting vessels from 

 Cornwall to the Isle of Wight. This alternative method of transport 



