In this manner a timely warning of the coming of the wolves might be given. These slinking hounds advancing in the shade of the valleys, or in the shadow of the great forests, or louping along in their thousands over the marshy borders of the rivers, must have been a veritable danger to the herds while grazing in the plains during the day, and this danger would be still greater during the night.

At the top of the hill a cattle camp would therefore be constructed to receive the herds in the evening, and at its base the great wolf platforms would be set in a position where a conflict might be carried on without stampeding the herds in the camp above.

As it is not the nature of wolves to fight a pitched battle against a great and organised adversary, the presence of bodies of shouting men stationed tier above tier on the platforms would probably have been sufficient to drive off the howling wolves. Furthermore, it is obvious for the security of the herds that the wolves would have to be driven off to a distance. To attempt to enclose a grazing-ground by an impassable barrier in the plain, even if such a course were possible, would have been to allow the wolves to lurk around the settlement.

Stupendous as are the works of neolithic man, it is almost inconceivable that even he, before the age of iron, could have erected and maintained, mile after mile, for hundreds of miles an effective palisading.

If we now approach St. Martinsell Hill from the south we see that there is only one natural way up its steep sides; but even here the pathway to the summit is worn into steps as being the only secure method of approaching the top.

At the foot of the hill and on either side of the pathway we may see the wolf platforms. Those lying to the east of the path are constructed in tiers where some three or four Titanic steps guard the approach on this side. These steps are thirty to forty feet wide, and the sloping face is but little less. On the west of the path is one great platform scooped out of the face of the hill, on which some fir trees are now growing. Near the summit of the hill the ground is pitted with small cup-shaped depressions. These small pits mark the sites of prehistoric dwellings. Situated as they are, they guard the entrance to the citadel, at the further end of which a great earthen embankment has been piled up. On the eastern side of the summit a level platform has been

constructed as though to withstand the attack of wolves which may have climbed the steep side from the arena within the amphitheatre. The view from the summit extends away over plains and downland to a distant blue horizon, which is merged into the sky and cloudland of the heavens. Each headland standing out in this vast view shows the sites of other settlements.

seen.

Standing within the citadel a large circular depression, like a deep saucer, some seventy or eighty feet in diameter, is very clearly As the ground on which this depression was excavated was not level, the excavated earth has been thrown up in such a manner that the brim is level all round. This depression marks the site of a dewpond. It is now dried up, but it is as old as the earthen embankments of the citadel in which it is situated, and forms an essential part of the scheme. We may with certainty say that it is not less than four thousand years old. It was a pond which did not depend for its water supply on any spring or stream, nor on the raindrops which fell into it. The art of making such a pond has almost died out, and, as its name implies, it was filled by the condensation of the moisture of the air.

Proceeding along the saddle of the down we come to the entrance to the citadel through the great embankment at the further end. In the ditch beyond, from which the earth was excavated to make the embankment, the ground is pitted, again showing that this entrance was also guarded.

This, however, is but the first of a series of defences on the north. A short distance in front of the main embankment an entrenchment has been cut across the ridge, and perhaps one hundred yards beyond this there is a low embankment, with a ditch beyond it.

An interesting point in this low embankment is to be found in the fact that there are clear traces that it was patrolled, for a small worn path has made a slight depression on its upper surface. Seeing that this low embankment runs from one steep side of the down across the saddle to the steep descent on the opposite side, it could not at any time have served as an ordinary pathway.

We may perhaps pause here for a time to picture to ourselves the weird sight of our early ancestor, long-haired and dressed in wolf-skins, armed with flint implements, patrolling this low embankment. On one side of him was the citadel, and on the other were the fortified enclosures where the herds were kept. During the dark nights he must have heard the howling of the wolves,

and the frightened noises from the herds, and in the dim distance he could see, no doubt, the firelight from other settlements. From our highly civilised, if not over-civilised, point of view, the life may appear a hard one, but it was probably a healthy one for the strong, and the weaklings died early.

Continuing along the ridge, certain winding paths may be noticed which have a tendency to converge. By following the track of these paths it will be found that they lead into a country lane descending on the eastern side of the slope, and in places cut twenty or thirty feet deep.

As soon as we saw the convergence of these winding tracks leading to the deep cutting of the lane, we recognised at once that these were the tracks left by the herds going towards a cattleway leading to the plains.

We next looked for, and found, a confirmatory piece of evidence which we knew from previous experience would be present if this country lane had been, indeed, a neolithic cattleway. We sought a cup-shaped depression in the ground at a point at the top of the lane before it dispersed itself into the radiating paths. There, exactly in the position anticipated, the depression was found which marks the site of an early habitation. From the frequency with which a depression is situated in the same relative position with regard to a cattleway, it may be assumed that neolithic man tallied or counted his herds as they passed in or out of his settlements. We have called these particular depressions when found in other settlements the cattle tally houses.'

It is interesting to note from what was subsequently observed in connection with the settlement on Huish Hill, that this particular cattleway leads down to the grazing-grounds lying to the east of the settlements.

It will be presently demonstrated that considerable confusion resulted from the mingling of the herds which descended respectively from St. Martinsell Hill and from Huish Hill, and that neolithic man had to rearrange the grazing-grounds for the herds which were encamped on Huish Hill.

Continuing our journey along the ridge, and leaving the cattleway and the cattle tally house on our right, another depression in the ground is found. This depression does not possess the appearance of having been the site of a dwelling, owing to its considerable size and depth. Such depressions may be seen in neolithic settlements, and they generally have a low mound or hump across the

centre, thus roughly dividing the depression into two compartments. The frequency with which these humped depressions are found wherever neolithic man has settled, proves that they served some purpose in his economy. They are certainly not modern chalk-pits, as they are generally overgrown with the close, fine grass which seems to be peculiar to these heights. It is also noticeable that if once the surface of the ground has been ploughed a coarser grass takes the place of the fine turf. Furthermore, the absence of any cartway leading into the pits precludes the idea that they are of modern origin.

At the margin of the pit in question there is a faint indication of a worn path leading away from the raised hump in the centre. It leads to the edge of the steep side of the down, and here the excavated earth had been tipped.

These pits are, in fact, flint quarries, and the hump was left as a means of ingress and egress.

The whole surface of the land in the valleys and on the hilltops is strewn with nodules of flint; but these were not found suitable for fashioning the flint implements of neolithic man. Flint which has been exposed to the air for some years becomes too dry and hard to be chipped into arrowheads, scrapers, or celts.

Sir John Evans has pointed out that flints which have been freshly brought up from a considerable depth under the ground contain a quarter percentage of moisture, and are much more easily worked than those from the surface.

Before the age of metal, flint working must have been one of the most important industries, for out of this material perhaps most of the primitive tools had to be wrought. It is therefore not surprising that flint quarries should be discovered on most hilltops where neolithic man had settled.

It is also interesting to note that the surplus chalk and unsuitable nodules of flint had been tipped where it made the steep sides of the downs still steeper, and so added additional protection against any assailants.

A little further on is another dewpond, in this case still containing water. By the side of this second dewpond is a strawthatched shepherd's cottage, where the kind wife of the shepherd made some tea with the water drawn from the dewpond, and her young daughters gathered a dishful of wild raspberries for us. Not the least of the pleasures in roaming over the wild downs is the pleasant rests we make in the cottages of these kind