PRE-HISTORIC MAN. 
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thumb-flint, which was probably used for cleaning skins, and for 
scraping bones. The Esquimaux at the present day use a similar 
stone for scraping with. Pins were made of both bronze and bone, 
and grain was bruised by stone pounders, generally water-worn 
pebbles. Millstones, in the shape of small querns made of sandstone, 
are also common. The corn was probably gTOWTi on terraces made 
on the sides of the hills which formed their settlements, in 'a some- 
what similar manner to that in which the vine is gTown on the banks 
of the Rhine. The reason for this may have been two-fold. The 
valleys at that time were subject to constant overflowing of the rivers, 
and would be too swampy for gTOwing corn, and in the disturbed and 
unsettled state in which these people existed, it was necessary that 
their corn-growing land should be in a position where it could be 
protected. At that time the country presented a very different appear- 
ance to its present one, and all the bare millstone grit hills which now 
grow only heather were clothed with thick forests. In these forests the 
ancient Briton hunted herds of deer and wild boar, and a small species 
of ox. It is probable that the Irish elk still existed though rare ; 
the wolf was common, and the beaver occurred in suitable situations ; 
the horse and dog were domesticated ; and it is probable that the 
people possessed large herds of domesticated cattle. There is no 
evidence that the round-headed Britons indulged in cannibalism, and 
Mr. Greenwell is of opinion that this custom was unknown to them. 
He considers that the large megalithic structures at Stonehenge, 
Avebury, Callernish and Stennis were erected by these people ; but 
nothing of the kind exists in Yorkshire. Their dwellings appeared, 
from what is left of them, to have consisted of a waU never more than 
three feet in height, enclosing a circular space 15 feet to 30 feet in 
diameter, over which was raised a conical roofing of timber covered 
with turf or t hatch. There is generally a hearthstone in the centre. 
They were great fortifiers, and the whole of the north of England is 
full of forts and fortlets, the defensive places of the British tribes. It 
is probable that they raised stockades of timber upon the entrench- 
ments which were formed. It does not appear probable that these 
entrenchments were erected for combined protection, but rather by 
each separate small tribe for defence against others in the immediate 
BB 
