ABSTRACT
The hunters of the Lateglacial arrived in Britain dryshod by walking across the land bridge from the Continent and there is little evidence that they took much interest in marine resources. Rivers had occasionally to be crossed but this need imply nothing more elaborate than a floating log. The early Postglacial sites of Thatcham and Star Carr were both situated beside lakes, and this has led to the assumption that the occupants employed some form of water craft. At Star Carr Clark found what he took to be a paddle and, on the assumption that the surrounding birch forests would not
include trees of sufficient size for dugout canoes, argued in favour of the use of skin boats. Birch-bark canoes might be considered an alternative, and enigmatic rolls of birch bark found at Star Carr might have been primitive puncture kits. However, birches of the kind used by North American Indians did not grow in early Postglacial Britain, and it might be doubted whether our native birch trees ever produced sheets of bark of sufficient size for canoe manufacture to be practicable.
