620 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



drift may be represented (1) by the period requisite for the excavation of the valleys 

 to their present depth ; plus (2) the period necessary for the dying out and immi- 

 gration of a large part of the quartcrnary or post-glacial fauna and the coming in 

 of the prehistoric ; plus (3) the polished stone period ; plus (4) the bronze, iron, and 

 historic periods, which three latter in this country occupy a space of probably not 

 less than three thousand years. A single equation involving so many unknown 

 quantities is, as already observed, not susceptible of solution.* 



And Prof. Boyd Dawkins: 



The great changes in the fauna and geography of Britain, at the close of the Pleis- 

 tocene age, render it very improbable that tbe cave men were in any way repre- 

 sented by the neolithic tribes who are the first to appear in prehistoric Europe, 

 The former possessed no domestic animals, just as the latter are not known to have 

 been acquainted with any of the extinct species, with the exception of the Irish 

 elk. The former lived as hunters, unaided by the dog, in Britain, while it was part 

 of the continent ; the latter appear as farmers and herdsmen after it became an is- 

 land. Their states of culture, as we shall see presently, were wholly different. We 

 might expect, on a priori grounds, that there would be an overlap, and that the former 

 would have been absorbed into the mass of the new-comers. There is, however, no 

 evidence of this. * * • 



From the facts at present before us we may conclude that they belonged to two 

 races of men, living in Europe in successive times, and separated from each other by 

 an interval sufficiently great to allow of the above-mentioned changes taking place 

 in the physical conditions of Britain. * » * 



From the preceding pages the reader will gather a distinct idea of the physical 

 condition of Britain in the neolithic age, and of the manners and customs of the 

 inhabitants. The population was probably large, divided into tribal communities 

 possessed of fixed habitations, and living principally on their flocks and herds, ac- 

 quainted with agriculture, and subsisting in a lesser degree by hunting and fishing. 

 The arts of spinning, weaving, mining, and pottery-making were known, and that 

 of boat-building had advanced sufficiently far to allow of voyages being made from 

 France to Britain, and from Britain to Ireland. Traffic was carried on by barter, and 

 stone axes were distributed over areas far away from those in which the stone was 

 found. Tombs also were built, some of imposing grandeur, for the habitation of the 

 dead in the after- world, in which the spirits were supposed to lead a life not very 

 diflerent from that of the living, and at which they were worshiped by the family 

 or tribe, after the manner of the red Indians aud many African peoples. * » » 



The neolithic implements and the domestic animals and plants, described in the 

 preceding pages, have been discovered over the whole of Europe, with the exception 

 of northern Russia aud northern Scandinavia. They imply that the neolithic civil- 

 ization was long established, and that it underwent so little change, if any, in the 

 lapse of ages that no traces of a change have been j^reserved to our times. Its dura- 

 tion varied in different countries, aud it yielded place to a higher culture in Greece 

 and Italy long before it passed away from central and northern Europe. * * * 



The introduction of this civilization is the starting-point of the history of the pres- 

 ent inhabitants of Europe. To the neolithic peoples we owe the rudiments of the 

 culture which we ourselves enjoy. The arts which they introduced have never been 

 forgotten, and all subsequent progress has been built upon their foundation. Their 

 cereals are still cultivated bj^ the farmer, their domestic animals still minister to us, 

 and the arts of which they only possessed the rudiments have developed into the 

 industries — spinning, weaving, pottery-making, mining ; without which we can 

 scarcely realize what our lives would be.t 



* Evans: Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain ; p. 618. 

 tW. Boyd Dawkins: Early Man in Britain; p. 265, etc. 



