Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/424

396 propelled by broad paddles; in one the men are keeping stroke, and the master in the prow of the boat is directing them. Sometimes, though rarely, they carry one mast with sails, as in the slab at Järrestad, figured by M. Bruzelius. Long galleys similar to those engraved on the rocks, with prows and sterns lifted high up above the water, like those above described, frequently adorn the blades of razors and other articles of the Bronze age in Scandinavia.

From these figures we may conclude that the Scandinavian peoples in the Bronze age were possessed of boats, very different from the rude Neolithic canoes, and capable of taking long voyages. It is very likely that these boats are to be looked upon as the precursors of the long ships, snakes, and sea-dragons, which carried the terror of the northern pirates into almost every portion of the seaboard of Europe. They imply a considerable amount of intercourse by sea between Scandinavia and the adjoining countries.

From the facts recorded in this chapter it is obvious that the civilisation of Britain in the Bronze age was closely related to that of the Continent, and that it was far higher than that which it succeeded. It was, however, of a lower order than that either of Scandinavia or of France, which is a fact due to the Bronze age of the former having lasted as late as the Christian era, while the latter country was the first to receive advantage from intercourse with the civilised peoples south of the Alps. The origin of bronze, and of the bronze civilisation, will be treated in the following chapter.