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PREHISTORIC BRITAIN

justify the idea that there had been any break in the continuity of the flint industry in Europe. And further, that there was valid evidence to show that the extremely dolichocephalic skulls found in the sepulchral caverns of the Lozère (Baumes-Chaudes, L'Homme-Mort, etc.), were those of the descendants of the cavemen.

At the meeting of the Congress of Anthropology and Prehistoric Archæology held at Stockholm in 1874, M. Cazalis de Fondouce reviewed the Hiatus theory in all its aspects, in a masterly paper, in which he combated it on every point. His general conclusions were that the transition from the one civilization to the other was slow, but without interruption since the commencement of the Palæolithic period down to the present day; that towards the close of that period two or more different races had combined and developed the primary elements of Neolithic civilization; that the ameliorated climate attracted, from time to time, new immigrants who imported improved elements into the arts and industries; and lastly, that the incoming tribes gradually absorbed the indigenous people of the old Stone Age, thus accounting for the persistence of the marked ethnic peculiarities of the Palæolithic races still to be traced in the populations of Europe.

If the opinion of M. de Fondouce with regard to the ultimate fate of the Palæolithic folk be correct, as I believe it is, there must have been a transition period of considerable