COKNISH DOLMENS. 89 



dolmen phase, and wo ought to find dohnens in tlie country ; but 

 thei'G are no dohnens in Austria. In Soutli Africa, also, there 

 are weapons of the Palajolithic period, in the shape of rough 

 flints which are found in many places in Cape Colony.-" These are 

 succeeded by tools of the Neolithic age, which are found in the 

 same region, and the natives now use iron weapons. Here, also, 

 the natives have passed through the dolmen phase and we ought 

 to find dolmens in the country : but there are none. I believe, 

 therefore, that the dolmens were built by one special race at one 

 particular time in Eurojie, and that dolmen building ceased 

 because the builders completely and mysteriously disappeared. 

 This view may not be accepted by many, and will probably be 

 rejected by some because it will be declared to be " behind the 

 time" and not "up-to-date." But I maintain that in weighing 

 the merits of a scientific theory what we have to consider is not 

 Avhether it is "out-of-date," or " up-to-date," but whether it is 

 right or wrong ; and no mere epigrammatic phrases, however 

 ingeniously conceived or cleverly expressed, should prevent us 

 from considering the (j^uestion in this manner. 



After the battle of Coleuso, when the foreign officers 

 attached to the British army were discussing the action, the 

 American attache, whilst deploring the loss sustained by the 

 British in their failure to carry the Boer position by a frontal 

 attack, asked — "Was there no way round the corner?" It 

 seems to me that the frontal attack on the dolmen-position, 

 which seeks to ascertain the age of these monuments by digging 

 beneath them, having completely failed, we had better try to find 

 some way "round the corner," and seek for success in other 

 directions. 



Let us begin by considering the geographical distribution of 

 the dolmens, for here is a new way of investigating the question. 

 Good maps are necessary, and, although in France these have 

 been prepared by the labours of MM. Bertrand, de Bonstetten, 

 and Mortille, England is, unfortunately behind, in this matter.^^ 



20. Repot t of the Norwich Congress of Prehistoric Archccoiogy, i86S, pp. 69-71. 

 Ancii'iii Stone Iinplcmcnts, pp. 337, 654. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 

 vol. xiii, p. 162. 



21. A map of the distribution of rude stone monuments prepared by Col. A. Lane- 

 Fox, appears in the Journal of the Ethnological Society for 1(569. 



