Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/572

546, the mammoth, and the woolly rhinoceros; and they appear to have been driven along with these animals toward the north, through the action of some geographical change whose magnitude we have now no means of gauging.

The Neolithic era marked the dawn of a new and higher civilization. In many parts of the country, notably at Hardham in Sussex and in Kent, many collections of polished stone implements have been found, such us stone axes and adzes, chisels, gouges, small saws, hammers, awls for boring, stone picks for turning up the soil, pestles, mortars, querns, and spindle-whorls. Needles have also been found, which imply a knowledge of the art of sewing; and cups and various other vessels of rude earthenware, which show that these old-world folks could ply the potter's craft with a considerable degree of deftness. The bones found show also that they no longer depended for a precarious subsistence altogether upon the spoils of the chase, but that they were herdsmen and fishermen as well. They possessed the horse, a small short-horned ox, two kinds of swine, goats, and horned sheep, with dogs of a large breed. In architecture they were unquestionably far behind, for their dwellings seem to have consisted of pits roofed with wattle. The remains of these ancient Neolithic builders are plentifully scattered over the country. They were all built or rather scooped out upon one plan. There was a circular shaft for an entrance, going down to a depth of from seven to eight feet, five to seven feet wide at the bottom, and narrowing to three at the top; and round this was a chamber or cluster of chambers. In these huts are found a variety of the polished stone implements mentioned above, bones of the domesticated animals, and shreds of pottery. In north Kent there is a series of vertical shafts sunk in the chalk; but these seem to have been rather flint-quarries than the homes of our Neolithic forefathers.

In the north of Scotland, modified perhaps to suit the greater inclemency of the climate, the Neolithic dwellings are somewhat different, and take the form of massive circular huts or burghs, as they are called. In these are found the same stone implements and the same bones of animals. The flint of which these stone implements are made was obtained by quarrying for the flint nodules in the chalk. Many of these mines with the mining tools still remain, with great quantities of chips and splinters; which show that the flint implements were, partially at least, manufactured on the spot where the flint was obtained.

In some instances, caves seem to have been used as dwellings by the Neolithic inhabitants of Europe; and, where not employed as a shelter for the living, they seem to have been frequently selected, when within reach, as a resting-place for the dead. In these cave-mausoleums, numerous skeletons of both sexes and of all ages are found. Where no cave was to be had, the dead, as our readers are already aware, were