MORTIMER: HABITATION TERRACES OF THE EAST RIDING. 
223 
covered the gTOiind, and the terraces were sharply defined. In every 
case these terraces show most clearly that they have been made with a 
definite purpose. It has been suggested by Mr. Stackhouse that the 
somewhat similar terraces he observed on the hill-sides in the South of 
England, had been made by the ancient Britains as advantageous 
stations for placing their war-chariots before a battle, from which they 
might swoop down upon their enemies with greater force. But it 
seems to me that for such a purpose their form and position is quite 
unsuited, indeed almost impracticable; and I think that these simple 
hill-side terraces could hardly have been made for any other purpose 
than as sites of primitive dwellings. Their narrow ledge-like form 
and situation, on ground generally with a cheerful aspect and difficult 
to approach, would make them a pleasant and somewhat secure posi- 
tion for habitations such as would be erected by a few early hunters. 
At that time this neighbourhood would be more or less a wooded 
district, and, it is fair to presume, sufficiently well stocked with game 
to supply a scanty population whose wants were few, with food and 
and clothing, and the large game which would mostly move along the 
bottom of the valley could be readily observed by the occupiers of 
these ledges. 
Since writing this paper, Mr. Foote, of the Indian Geological 
Survey, has discovered similar pre-historic artificial terraces in India.* 
The abstract of Mr. Foote's paper states that " in December, 1885, 
he re-visited Bellany, and looked up the localities where he had found 
the celts, both chipped and polished. Mr. Foote's reasons for regard- 
ing many of the localities at which he got numerous celts and other 
implements, as old settlements or village sites of the celt makers, are 
the following: Whenever the celts and other implements were found 
in large numbers, the hills on which they were found showed many 
signs of human habitation. Many small terraces have been raised 
among the great blocks of granitic gneiss of which all the hills but 
one consisted. Many of the terraces were evidently constructed with 
reference to the convenient proximity of rock shelters, and in most 
* Journal Anthropological Institute, vol. xvi., No. 1, p. 72, 
