Reviews — Rec. F. Sniif/i — T/ie Stone Ages. 321 



II. — The Stone Ages in T^Torth Britain and Ireland. By the 

 Bev. Frederick Smith; with an Introduction by Augustus H. 

 Keane, LL.D. 8vo ; pp. xxiv, 377, Avith 521 illustrations. 

 London : Blackie and Son, 1909. Price 16«. net. 



FORTIFIED with an introduction from Dr. A. H. Keane, late 

 Vice-President of the lloyal Anthropological Institute, the 

 Bev. Frederick Smith has in the volume before us brought forward 

 the results of observation and diligent collecting carried on during 

 a period of nearly forty years. According to Dr. Keane, the author 

 "opens a new and wider chapter in the history of early man by 

 extending the inquiry to the whole of the British Isles and producing 

 for the first time convincing evidence that both Scotland and Ireland 

 were inhabited during the old Stone Age. His claim to have established 

 this fact, against the inveterate prejudice and incredulity even of the 

 most advanced British specialists, lies open before us and demands 

 a hearing ". With this latter appeal we are prepared cordially to agree. 

 When, however, Dr. Keane draws attention to the fact that implements 

 of Palaeolithic type have been discovered in so many regions of the 

 earth, from South Africa to Korea and South America, and asks what 

 was to prevent primitive man from crossing the border and ranging 

 over North Britain, we turn to the illustrations in this book and 

 are surprised to find not a single characteristic type of Palaeolithic 

 implement among the figures that illustrate the Scottish and Irish 

 specimens which Mr. Smith has gathered in situ. What may be 

 regarded as the best example is an implement of flint or agate which 

 was picked up in the bed of the Esk. 



The specimens on which Mr. Smith relies are profusely illustrated, 

 and they are undoubtedly of importance as representing a peculiar and 

 persistent type. As the author remarks, Dr. Keane " agreed with me 

 that Nature works miracles if the constant repetition in form and 

 design which groups of the other specimens exhibit were the result of 

 accident and not of human intention ". The same remarks apply to 

 Eolithic implements. Single specimens, or a few only, may fail to 

 convince, but a study of the series accumulated by Dr. H. P. Blackmore, 

 Mr. Benjamin Harrison, and others, would impress, if it did not 

 convince, any candid inquirer. 



The Scottish specimens collected and illustrated by Mr. Smith have 

 been formed from a variety of rocks, such as basalts, granites, 

 quartzite, dolomitic limestone, and ironstone. Many have been water- 

 worn, others have suffered from weathering which has produced 

 "a kind of mellowing of surface". The forms appear largely to be 

 due to the character of the materials at command, to their texture, 

 and natural jointing and fracture; and the author denies that "the 

 relics of Palaeolithic man in Scotland ought to be, and must be, replicas, 

 in form and style of work, of the typical flints". 



Many of the specimens which he has collected were found on the 

 seashore or along the beds of rivers. More important are those found 

 in situ in beds of valley gravel and in glacial drift. We cannot in all 

 cases agree with his identification of Boulder-clay, as for instance on 

 p. 90, where on Almond-side, Perth, the deposit is described as 

 "largely sand and gravel higlily rolled, with large erratics from one 



DECADE v. — VOL. VI. — NO. VII. 21 



