File:Neolithic dew-ponds and cattle-ways (1905) (14592829489).jpg

Identifier: neolithicdewpond00hubb (find matches)
Title: Neolithic dew-ponds and cattle-ways
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Hubbard, Arthur John, b. 1856 Griffin, Henry
Subjects: Stone age -- England England -- Antiquities
Publisher: London, New York, Bombay : Longmans, Green and co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ticular waywas purposely left for the cattle, so that it might betraversed by them while the dew-pond was being con-structed. It was probably anticipated that the peace of mindof the cattle would not be unduly disturbed if at allevents one of their traditional routes to the river wereleft untouched. All this is rather hyj)othetical ; but if we haxe readaright the difficulty which ()resented itself to early manand the means he took to get over it, we cannot helpadmiring his ingenuity, and we now regret having torecord that apparently this effort on his part to pre-serve his herds was a failure. It was a rash eff)rt on his part to attcm))t to con-struct a dew-pond on a ()eculiarly unsuitable piece ofland. Alongside of these trenches is the even andunbroken gentle slope of the hill ; here he could havebuilt his dew-pond with fir less labour and wiih fargreater probability of success. The dew-j)on(l in the midsi of the caillc-lracks we fear never held water. The old tracks run sharj)ly 60
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1 y. r > > Neolithic Dew-Ponds down to it, and the same old tracks reappear againbeyond it. There is nothing to indicate that the dew-pond hadbeen constantly used for watering the herds, and muchwhich tends to show the reverse. Perhaps it is pos-sible that there may have been some slight trickle ofwater down the trenches during heavy rain which wouldhave moistened the layer of reeds or straw below theclay, in which case, as we have before shown, thethermodynamics of the dew-pond would have beenupset. But there is yet further evidence of the failureof the dew-pond as a means of supplying theherds with water. The depth of the cattle-tracks, in-tercepted by the construction of the dew-pond, doesnot perhaps exceed three feet, whereas the depth ofthe solitary cattle-track which runs just outside theboundary of the dew-pond is about ten feet. Fromthis fact it seems clear to us that this particularcattle-track had to be used by the cattle on their wayto the river, not only while the de

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