SUBMERGED PEAT AND FOREST REDS. 



33 



Herds of red deer occupy hill and dale, and are stalked 

 by man and coursed by wolf. Vast herds of the long-faced 

 ox roam through the forest land, the wild boar has its lair in 

 the hazel thickets, and the beaver its dam on the banks of the 

 Titus ; the otter -has its home on the river banks, and the 

 marten and the wild cat inhabit the woods. The great Irish 

 elk and the brown bear are occasional visitors, and are no 

 doubt tracked with eagerness by the more venturesome 

 hunters. 



The skilled artizan grinds and polishes axes made of the 

 stone of the islands, sometimes of the banded sandstone of 

 Alderney, more frequently of the hard diabase of St. Samp- 

 son's ; but his axes de luxe are fashioned with extra care out 

 of the beautiful greenstone of the hermitage. He has an eye 

 to ornament also, and drills and fashions beads of stone. 

 Arrow heads he makes of flint, for he has not yet heard of 

 metal, but these are barbed and finished with care, and are 

 quite unlike the crude implements used by his long bygone 

 prototype, that could be had for the gathering on the moor- 

 lands and in the rock grottoes. Neolithic man makes pottery 

 from the blue glacial clay, but does not bake it well ; it is only 

 cooked half through and is therefore fragile. His larder is 

 well stocked, for beef and venison abound, and hazel nuts for 

 dessert are to be had in profusion. He is probably an epicure 

 and his horn spoons suggest soups. He dwells in tents or 

 wooden huts, for no stone habitation marks his presence, nor 

 does he appear to have occupied the cave dwellings in the 

 cliffs, for only paleolithic implements have been found there. 

 " We can picture to ourselves," as Professor Greikie says, 

 w the little round-headed people coiled up under their skin 

 tents, or squatting round their fires toasting fishes and roast- 

 ing bones, very much as certain tribes do at the present day." 



The earliest sun-worshippers are now erecting their rough 

 temples of great stones with skilful orientation and no mean 

 engineering skill. It is the beginning of the megalithic period, 

 the age of monuments to the great dead, the period of the 

 most ancient of the antiquarian's " Long Barrows." 



Thus ages roll on, and although each generation marks no 

 perceptible change, the relentless sea with its vanguard of 

 sand dunes is slowly annexing the land, and the climate is 

 changing for the worse. In course of time the sea washes the 

 shores of these islands at the level of our 25 foot raised beach, 

 and the curtain has fallen on Neolithic man. 



C 



