INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN 20,000 YEARS AGO.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 20 October 1880, Page 2

INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN 20 ,000 YEARS AGO.

» "The. Man of the Caverns" was res cently (says the Times) the subject of a London Institution lecture, which was delivered in the theatre by Professor Boyd Dowkins, F.R.S., who fills the Chair of Geology in Owens College, Manchester. He said that, wbile the river-drift men and the cave men were living in Britain, the hills and valleys in the s<yjth of England presented the same outlines as they did now. Could we take our stand in those times on Shooter's hill or on the Essex heights, and look over the Thames Valley in the direction of London, we should see a dense forest covered with oak, ash, and Scotch fir, and the course of the Thames marked by lines of willows and alders. A few thin columns of smoke, rising over the tops of the trees would mark Jkke camping places of primeval man. Klthe forests wild boars, mammoths, an<|' rhinoceroses, wild horses, stags, and Irish elks, would meet our eyes, and in the slimmer time count* less herds of bisons, lika those now rang* ing over the plains m Norlhswestern America. In the winter-were va *t num« bers of reindeer, nnd a* few mnsk-sheep, the most Arctic of tho mammalia in its habits. In the rivers were otters and beavers, and the explorer would be startled by the snort of tbe'hippoj otnmus in the reaches of the Thames near Brentford. Beasts of prey also abounded, lions, leopards, hyena s',5 ', grizzly bears, wolves, and foxes. It we penewated to one of lb<> campsfires we shouldvbnre seen the river drift hunter chippi^f or using some of those rude fl nt implements which lie buried in the London gravels along with the remains of the at^gmls which he hunted. The rivcr-drilflijln, in the long course of ages, was suoefflped by the man of the eavcrns, 1 ke him a hunter, living on the same animals, and more highly equipped for the battle of life In the course of time the caveman disnppeare 1. ihe climate nnd geography of h's country became almost what, it was -n-/.v. t'-o hunter .''fii;.'!! ,'-.;' civil. -. Unv. ''■'••* >". ' ■'" S'"!c liy th:>; „• <]■_? P, v ,! s ,na* ■„ : | .i,. «iit..r <i< die i;r>. und ai d 'he r.i ■ n'„e .:••■ , of lhe Ni-o'ithie Age. Fio i ihe e•lit bio Aye down to t\\_ pres'Pt 1 1 •s: — t ' -«- progress of man had been im' r- »i':i ii: Britain and iv Europe, and the p c-enl condition of she '-.'fivnf ;>n peonies was to he 1 rkeil upon as i!ip r< sub of a ;."-' 'oal :;.-iics of el--!ii.cre« by vi hicb rivihs.v on ! '-hv, 'ci .v :..ie >• o.aici vLl.di'.t. i-biee in;:-. '

the new,' because the uew order wos higher and nobler.