THE PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 
35 
In all probability, therefore, the existing traces of ancient habi- 
tation on Dartmoor are of many dates, and belong to peoples of 
varied occupations. That some were miners we have direct evi- 
dence in the ruins of ancient smelting works, as at Yealm Head, 
where, adjacent to a large group of hut rings, are the foundations 
of rectangular buildings, with granite moulds for casting metal 
into ingots. 1 But here, as elsewhere, many of these settlements 
were tenanted by rude herdsmen and shepherds ; and, later still, in 
the progress of that simple but real civilisation to which they 
could lay claim, by the pioneers of primitive husbandry. 
It may help us somewhat if we try to form an idea of the popu- 
lation of Devon during the leading periods which we pass in review. 
Now Schoolcraft, one of our best authorities, " estimates that in a 
population which lives upon the produce of the chase, each hunter 
requires on an average 50,000 acres, or seventy-eight square miles, 
for his support." 2 This would give Devon thirty -three or thirty- 
four only ! At the aboriginal average of Australia we should get 
but fifty-two ! The special means of sustenance afforded by the 
sea coast may have given Devon a hunting population somewhat in 
excess of this proportion ; but if we take the figures quoted by Sir 
John Lubbock 3 for Hudson's Bay Territory, where there is about 
one inhabitant to every ten square miles, we should only get 260 
Devonians ; while if we assume, as the basis of our calculation, 
the density of the population of the Indian territories of the United 
States, living partially on subsidy, in 1825, the total would be but 
2,000. Beyond the latter figure Devon could not have gone until 
a somewhat settled mode of life had been established. Probably 
at no period within pre-historic times, as defined in this address, 
did the progress of Devonian civilisation reach so high a point as 
that now current in Paraguay, which would give us a population 
of about 10,000. The smaller the number of inhabitants the longer 
the time we must allow them for their works, and the greater the 
interval covered by their interments. These figures are infer- 
ential, though sufficiently exact ; but we are not without direct 
evidence. Domesday Book gives us a careful census of the county 
1 Vide Jour. R. 1. Corn. vi. pp. 125-8. Moulds for casting bronze imple- 
ments and weapons have been found somewhat frequently. 
2 Indian Tribes, vol. i. p. 433, cited Prc-Historic Times, p. 593. 
3 Op. ext. pp. 593-4. 
