13 JULY 1929, Page 25

More Books of the Week

(Continued from page 55.) An American geologist of repute, Professor H. F. Cleland, of Williams College, has written a useful book on Our Pre- historic Ancestors (Williams and Norgate, 21s.), in which he tries to summarize methodically all that is definitely known about early man. He rightly stresses the importance of the progress made in the neolithic period, from which date agriculture, domestic animals, houses, weaving, and pottery. Professor Cleland devotes an interesting chapter to the mega- lithic monuments : he does not accept Professor Elliot Smith's theory that the megalith builders came from or were in- fluenced by Egypt, but he sees at any rate that the idea of raising enormous stone structures can hardly have occurred independently to various peoples in various parts of the world. The later chapters on the bronze and iron ages are competently done. The book is particularly well illustrated.