PEOPLE OF THE SUBMERGED FOREST 43 
layer of clay in which the skull rested is the silt formed 
in the bottom of a hill pool ; the deep layer of peat, 
9|- feet thick, may have formed over the silt in a thousand 
years, and the superficial stratum, 3 feet in thickness, at 
a rapid pace. The animal remains found in the peat may 
be Neolithic or mediaeval in date. The value of worked 
flints as a means of dating a deposit was then unknown ; 
no evidence of this kind was looked for. The Mickleton 
skull is a typical example of the river-bed type, and the 
manner in which it has been preserved provides an 
excellent illustration of how the earth records its own 
history and stores within itself traces of the living things 
which inhabit it. 
Our survey of the Neolithic period in England reveals 
a remarkably uniform and unchanging race of people — of 
less than medium stature, with well-shaped heads of rather 
more than average size. If we centre our attention 
merely on the physique of the people and note how little 
it changes, we may be led to the belief, if we think our 
bodily characters must change during the lapse of long 
periods, that the Neolithic period could not have covered 
a great space of time — one of eight thousand or ten 
thousand years. The animals which accompanied man in 
that period also changed very little ; the natural plants of 
the country remained the same. Such changes as are 
noted in the fauna and flora are, we have every reason to 
think, due to the direct influence of man. In the four 
thousand years which have come and gone since the 
Neolithic period closed, we have revolutionised the con- 
ditions of life. From time to time, fresh blood, drawn 
from many racial stocks, has been introduced into Britain ; 
the tongue spoken in England has changed several times, 
yet the backbone of the British population at the present 
time is a direct continuation and perpetuation of the river- 
bed stock of the Neolithic period. 
If we reckon time by the degree of change wrought on 
the human body, we must count the Neolithic a short 
period. When, however, we note the changes which 
have occurred in the configuration of the land, our minds 
