Whether this period of 3500 years will really take us back to the commencement of the Bronze Age is doubtful, for Stonehenge had already been built, and though only stone hammers seem to have been there used, yet one slight streak of bronze or copper has been noticed. Of course, there may have been a similar occasional use of bronze at the time of the last submerged forest; but we have as yet no evidence of this, and the possible correspondence in date between Stonehenge and the last of the submerged forests remains merely a suggestion.
Perhaps we may still find submerged stone-circles or other antiquities of the age of Stonehenge beneath the sea-level; but Stonehenge lies too high above the sea for it in itself to give any clue as to a change of sea-level. We will only make one suggestion. It is probable that when Stonehenge was built, a long arm of the sea extended far up the Avon Valley, so that navigable water was found not far from Stonehenge. There is in Stonehenge an inner circle of smaller stones, not composed of the local greywethers but consisting of large blocks of igneous rock of foreign origin. These blocks, which are sufficiently large to be awkward for land-carriage, have been said to be erratics gathered on Salisbury Plain, just as the grey-wethers for the main circle were gathered; but there are no erratics on Salisbury Plain. Large erratic blocks of similar character occur, however.
