"Cave-hunting," published in 1874, he has cleared the way for the present inquiry into the conditions of life, the growth in culture, and the relation to history of primeval man in Britain. The present work is copiously illustrated, and its author admits that it has defects due partially to the nature of the subject, but chiefly to the swiftness with which our knowledge of early man is being enlarged by new discoveries. The author has no favorite theory to advocate, and writes with caution in reference to chronology, considering that there is little ground for placing confidence in dates. As to the antiquity of man, he thinks that we have far from settled views upon the subject. The scientific problem now is how far fossil man can be traced back into the Tertiary. There are those who hold that the early indications of the human race go back to the Miocene or Pliocene period, but Professor Dawkins finds no trustworthy indications earlier than the Pleistocene, or most recent geological period. He considers that on biological grounds it was improbable, if not impossible, that man should appear much earlier than the period marked by arrowheads, flint scrapers, etc., an opinion that he shares with some of the most competent geologists of the present time. The earliest man met with in Britain Professor Dawkins states is the hunter of the old Drift period, who had for contemporaries the grizzly bear, spotted hyena, lion, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant, and most of the animals now existing. England and Ireland were then one, and were united to the continent, and possessed vastly different climatic conditions from the present. This primitive man was spread over a wide range of country, of which Britain was but a small part, and must have previously existed a considerable period of time. His successor was a man of a much higher type, who appears to have been equally widespread, and to have been possessed of much better and more varied tools and considerable artistic ability, as shown by his carvings in bone and ivory. Professor Dawkins regards him as the direct ancestor of the present Esquimau, and points out in support of his position a number of striking resemblances. The Pleistocene period closes with the diappearance of these cave-men, and neolithic civilization opens with the prehistoric farmer and herdsman. At the time of his advent, the British Islands had attained nearly their existing shape, and climatic conditions were closely allied to the present. These men were short, well built, black-haired, and of swarthy complexion. They came wandering westward from the East, with flocks and herds and some knowledge of agriculture. Before them the mild and unwarlike progenitors of the Esquimau fled, leaving but little trace behind them. The conquerors brought with them many of the arts that raise man above the brute, and overrun the greater part of Europe, and a considerable portion of Asia and Africa. They were in turn displaced by the fair-haired Celts, the van of the Aryan migration, who exterminated, moved them aside, or enslaved them. A mixture of the two races occurred over the greater part of Europe, producing the main characteristics of the peoples of modern Europe. To the neolithic period succeeded that of bronze, and this in turn gave place to that of iron, the age which includes our present civilization. With the beginning of the historic period, the work of the archæologist yields to that of the historian, and at this point Professor Dawkins takes leave of his subject.
Reports of the Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Ethnology, in Connection with Harvard University. Vol. II. 1876-'79. Cambridge: printed by order of the Board of Trustees. 1880. Pp. 775.
This goodly volume contains the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth annual reports, and covers the last four years of museum-work. And very able and fruitful has been this work, as directed by the zealous skill of its curator, Professor Putnam, and the craniologist, Mr. Carr, his assistant. This book constitutes a no mean monument of home work done in American archæology. Did space suffice, it would be a pleasant task to review these reports at length. Besides a good deal of matter which merely concerns the shop-work of the institution, we find twenty-two articles all devoted to American archæology and ethnology, and each one containing results of original research. Thus there are papers of first-rate significance under such names as Putnam,
