106 CORNWALL 20. Antiquities : Prehistoric, Roman, Celtic, Saxon. The first men who inhabited our island were the merest savages. They had no knowledge of the use of metals, they could not make pottery ; they had not domes- ticated the cow, the sheep, or the dog. They used extremely rude flint weapons and tools. They were contemporary with the cave bear, the woolly rhinoceros, the mammoth, and the cave hyaena, all which beasts then lived in Britain ; and at that time the temperature was much colder than at present. This period is called the Palaeolithic, or Old Stone Age. The next race that entered our island found the temperature much as it is now. They were comparatively civilised. They still used flint implements, but of a very superior type, and far better finished than those of the earlier race. Moreover they were agricultural, grew corn, had cows and sheep and dogs, and made pottery. This race it was which erected the so-called cromlechs, stone circles, and tall upright stones. The remains of their villages of circular stone huts are very numerous on the moors. This period is called the Neolithic, or New Stone Age. After a time bronze was introduced, by trade, and was at first as valuable as gold is to us. But after a while it became much more common. Its introduction marked the commencement of the Bronze Age. To the Bronze Age succeeded the Iron Age. This
