Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/516

488 from Scandinavia by the same route as the Norwegians in later times found their way into Caithness, setting sail from Thule, and making for the Orkneys. The Belgic Gauls also had crossed over from the opposite coasts of France, and had taken possession of the southern counties. They are not to be distinguished by any physical character from the Celtic peoples.

The Roman civilisation rapidly followed the Roman arms into Britain, and, although felt but to a slight degree between the invasion of Julius Cæsar and the conquest under Claudius, was carried by the policy of Suetonius and Agricola as far west as the Atlantic, and as far north as the Highlands of Scotland. The military occupation of the country led to the springing up of new towns, such as Chester, round the Roman camps, and the country was opened up by roads similar in their effects to the railways of the nineteenth century. Many of these are still in use. The strong central power which put an end to the rivalry between petty chieftains turned the attention of the people from war to agriculture, and Britain became one of the most important grain- producing countries in the Roman Empire.

The morasses were drained, forests cut down, and large tracts of land at the mouths of the rivers re-claimed from the tidal waters by the embankments which still do their work. The mineral wealth of the country was eagerly sought, not only the tin of Cornwall, or the iron of the Weald of Sussex, of the forest of Dean, and of the northern counties, but the gold and the copper of Wales, the lead of Derbyshire