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organic life of our own mother country, and we are entitled fairly to assume 

 that the consequences which ordinarily result from the felling of the woods, 

 namely, changes in local climate, changes in the drainage of the soil, and 

 changes in the external configuration of the ground, followed the action of these 

 people, and rendered England a fitter abode for man, as a civilized being, than it 

 had been during the earlier period I have referred to. We are, as I think I 

 before observed, fairly justified in assuming, on the one hand, that during the 

 age of the cave men, the population was extremely limited, and confined to 

 localities easily accessible, while the country at large was ranged over by animals 

 analogous to those which now occupy the jungles of India, and on the other, that 

 during the later Neolithic period the population was large, extending over every 

 part of the country, and that the earlier fauna and flora had given place to one 

 more suited to the wants and uses, of a semi-civilized people. How this change 

 was brought about it is difficult to say, but that a very large period of time 

 must have been concerned in producing it, is beyond all doubt. 



The Neolithic age passes, by insensible gradations, into the age of Bronze. 



Of the latter age Mr. Lubbock tells us as follows : — " There are four 

 principal theories as to the Bronze age. According to some Archaeologists, the 

 discovery, or introduction of bronze was unattended by any great or sudden 

 change in the condition of the people ; but was the result, and is the evidence 

 of a gradual and peaceable development. Some attribute the bronze arms and 

 implements, found in Northern Europe, to the Roman armies, some to the 

 Phoenician merchants ; whilst others, again, consider that the men of the Stone 

 age were replaced by a new and more civilized people of Indo-European race 

 coming from the East ; who, bringing with them a knowledge of bronze, over- 

 ran Europe, and dispossessed — in some places entirely destroying — the original, 

 or rather the earlier inhabitants. 



"It is not, indeed, necessary to suppose that the introduction of bronze 

 should have been effected everywhere in the same manner ; so far, for instance, 

 as Switzerland and Ireland are concerned, Dr. Keller and Sir W. R. Wilde 

 may be quite right in considering that the so-called ' primitive ' population did 

 not belong to a different race from that subsequently characterized by the use 

 of bronze. 



" Still, though it is evident that the knowledge of bronze must necessarily 

 have been preceded by the separate use of copper and of tin ; yet no single 

 implement of the latter metal has been hitherto found in Europe, while those 

 of copper are extremely rare. Hungary and Ireland, indeed, have been 

 supposed to form partial exceptions to this rule. The geographical position of 

 the former country is probably a sufficient explanation ; and as far as Ireland 

 is concerned, it may perhaps be worth while to examine how far that country 

 really forms an exception. In the great Museum at Dublin, there are 725 

 celts and celt-like chisels, 282 swords and daggers, and 276 lances, javelins, and 

 arrow heads ; yet out of these 1283 weapons, only 30 celts and one. sword 

 blade are said to be of pure copper. I say ' are said to be,' because they have 

 not been analyzed, but are supposed to be copper only from the ' physical 

 properties and ostensible colour of the metal ;' indeed, one of these very celts, 

 which was analyzed by Mr. Mallet, was found to contain a small percentage of 

 tin. It is possible that for some of the purposes to which celts were applied, 

 copper may have been nearly as useful as bronze, and at any rate it might 

 sometimes have happened that from a deficiency of tin, some implements would 

 be made of copper only. 



" Taking these facts into consideration, Ireland certainly does not appear 

 to present any strong evidence of an age of copper, while no one has ever 

 pretended to find either there, or anywhere else in Europe, a trace of any 

 separate use of tin. 



