EARLY MAN 



open and large tracts of uncultivated land, and Dartmoor is unique. The 

 surface of much of this moorland area has never been disturbed by the 

 plough — it has remained a purely pastoral grazing district from time 

 immemorial. 



The aspect of the heights and slopes of Dartmoor during the prehistoric 

 period was much as it is now, but many of the valleys we should hardly 

 recognize. Some of these were marshes studded with bulrushes, a good 

 example of which is Broad Marsh on the East Dart running up to the foot 

 of Cut Hill. This was drained by the ' old men,' i.e. the ancient tinners, 

 who dug through solid rock and lowered the bed of the river to such an 

 extent that the marsh was relieved of the water, thus enabling them to stream 

 the surface for tin. It still remains boggy, and bulrushes may yet be seen in 

 the wettest portions. 



Other valleys again were densely wooded thickets, containing oak, alder, 

 hazel, and furze. Gawler Bottom near Post Bridge is a type of the once 

 wooded valley, and Wistmans Wood is an example of an existing specimen. 

 Gawler Bottom, now a bog, was apparently formed by the Gawler Brook 

 becoming choked in the lower end of the valley, and the resulting formation 

 of the peat killed the trees. When the turf-cutters are at work, remains of 

 black oak and even hedge-nuts may be seen lying deep in the bog four to 

 five feet under the surface. Without multiplying instances we can easily 

 imagine the thickets in some of the valleys and the marshes in others — the 

 former harboured the wolf and the latter teemed with wild fowl. 



The slopes sweeping up to the tors were generally bare as they are now, 

 and studding these, in favoured positions, were the dwellings of a primitive 

 pastoral people. Sometimes these occurred in clusters, and were surrounded 

 by a massive wall — in other cases the villages were encircled by a less 

 substantial wall which seems not to have been erected for defensive purposes, 

 but more for the purpose of corralling cattle — in others again the villages 

 were quite open with corrals attached to the huts and forming quite a net- 

 work of enclosures. 



In addition to these villages there are hut circles scattered over the dry 

 and best favoured areas of the moor. The foundations of these circular huts 

 are composed of such massive granite blocks that they have withstood the 

 ravages of time in a remarkable manner, and many of them stand to-day 

 much as they must have been soon after they ceased to serve as habitations 

 for the particular people who used them. They are to be found in hundreds, 

 and must have formerly existed in even greater numbers, for a great number 

 have been destroyed by the newtake wall builder and the road-mender. 



Like the other stone monuments of Dartmoor the hut circles have 

 furnished abundant material for conjecture of a haphazard character, and to 

 settle this the investigation of these remarkable relics was systematically and 

 scientifically undertaken in 1893 by the Rev. S. Baring Gould and the writer, 

 with whom some other gentlemen were afterwards associated.^ 



Broadun Ring and Broadun Post Bridge. — The evidence yielded by the diggings disclosed a 

 stone-using people, and the explorers were under the impression that the finds indicated a very primitive 

 people living in a purely neolithic condition ; but in the light of subsequent and numerous explora- 

 tions in similar ruins of circular dwellings in other parts of Dartmoor they are now of opinion that 



' Dartmoor Exploration Com. Devon. Assoc. 

 349 



