EARLY MAN IN theory, the period covered in this section is that which began with the first appearance of man in Derbyshire and ended with the dawn of the Roman occupation, but it is doubtful whether the remains which will herein be marshalled before the reader are in their origin coterminous with it. The earliest may, for anything we know to the contrary, fall short of its beginning by thousands of years, and the latest may carry us into the Romano-British period or even beyond. Nor is their story even or continuous; some portions of this stretch of pre-historic time were less prolific than others in relics which have survived to our day, and we know of at least one long interval un- represented in this country by remains indicating the presence of man. Then there are differences of opinion as to the relative ages of whole groups. The great circles, for instance, are regarded as Neolithic, as of the Bronze age and even as post-Roman. The innumerable ancient camps, other than Roman, are probably legacies of all these ages, but so little have they been the subject of systematic comparative study that the sequence of their different types is about as obscure as ever. Then there are difficulties arising from local shortcomings. In studying the pre- historic remains of Derbyshire we have too often cause to regret the insufficiency of the investigations and the uncertainties of the published descriptions. These ancient remains are very unevenly distributed in the county, being most numerous in the mountainous region which lies north of Ashbourne and Wirksworth and west of Tansley, Darley and East Moors the ' Peak Country,' familiar to the tourist. The geological structure of this region is an irregular dome elongated in a north-west and south- west direction and sending out at its southern extremity a long spur into Staffordshire. The nucleus of this dome consists of mountain limestone, traversed by the ravines and rock-girt valleys for which the district is famous, and abounding with water-worn cavities ; and bordering it are the successive outcrops of Yoredale shales, millstone grits and coal- measures. Why the remains we are considering should crowd this hill-country and forsake the lowlands is uncertain. It has been suggested that the primitive inhabitants clung to the former because it was more easily defended than the latter against the marauding incursions of other tribes. It is more likely however that agriculture is responsible for the uneven distribution. The wear and tear of the elements have undoubtedly had a
