KxowLES— P/'fV^w/oric Remains, Sandhills, Coast of Ireland. 389 



coast. There is also a large extent of coast from Sligo soutli-vvarcls as far 

 as AcHll, which has received, little attention. I have visited Killala, in 

 Mayo, and reported on it, but that is all that has been done in the 

 district in question. Mr. Coffey has found indications of prehistoric 

 occupation on the Wexford coast, and Mr. TJssher has found remains of 

 Great Auk in sites examined by him near "Waterford. I hope to be 

 able to examine the sites in "SVaterf ord where those bones were found, 

 and also the Clare sites during the ensuing summer. Some parts of 

 the south coast, especially coiinty Cork, have also yet to be explored. 



The question may be asked. Who were these people who at one 

 time seem to have occupied the whole coast of Ireland, living largely 

 on shellfish, and having nothing better in the natui'e of tools than those 

 rude implements of stone, some of which are figured in this report ? 

 Were they in any way connected with the history or traditions so 

 familiar to us in our Annals ? I believe we must still count relation- 

 ship with these poor people though the invasions and great deeds 

 mentioned in oiu' records refer, I think, to a metal-using people. 



Professor Boyd Dawkins says that " various researches reveal the 

 important fact that the population of the British Isles was uniform in 

 character thi'ough the whole of the ISTeolithic Age." That it is 

 impossible to doubt that the whole of the British Isles was inhabited 

 fi'om the beginning to the close of the jSTeolithic Age by the same small 

 race in the same stage of cultui'e." That "at one period in the 

 T^eolithic Age the population of Eiu'ope west of the Rhine and north of 

 the Alps was unifonn in physique and consisted of the same small 

 people as the jSTeolithic inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland, and 

 " that the Basque-speaking people are to be looked upon as a fragment 

 of the race which occupied the British Isles, and the area west of the 

 Ehine and north of the Alps in the jSTeolithic Age." This people 

 according to the same high authority, is represented by the small 

 swarthy Welshman, with long head and Iberian physique ; in Scotland, 

 by the smaU dark Highlander, and ia Ireland by the black Celts west 

 of the Shannon. And also that they " are still amply represented in 

 the present population." ^ These statements from Professor Boyd 

 Dawkin's work, which are supported by other weighty authority, tell 

 the story more plainly than I could do, and show that we have an 

 interest in these people of the Stone Age and that, though there is no 

 doubt a great mixtui'e in our blood, we must still count them among 

 our ancestors. 



1 "Early Man in Britain," pp. 310-331. 



