This seems to point to the fact that some of our Tripolje people were, as we have seen before, occupying Silesia, while others had settled in Bohemia. Here they were using, and had perhaps taken over from an earlier people, a type of beaker, which had been developed from the cord pottery of northern Europe, influenced by a few imported specimens of the bell-beaker, which had come ultimately from Spain. Soon the steppe-folk, passing through Galicia and southern Silesia, entered Bohemia, and some, at any rate, of the Beaker-folk moved northwards. Lord Abercromby[251] has shown how they left through the Elbe gap and passed northwards between the valleys of the Weser and the Rhine. Some went further north to Jutland, where we find them introducing the single grave culture, characterised by the presence of beakers and those perforated stone axes, which we have met with before in the Tripolje area. [Illustration: FIG. 7. NORTHERN BEAKER.] Others passed into the low countries, where they occupied the region lying between Utrecht and Gelderland in the south and Drenthe in the north.[252] Thence some passed to this country. Lord Abercromby believes that they crossed the channel at the narrowest point, and passed westward and northward by land.[253] It seems more likely, however, that though the crossing may actually have been made by the Straits of Dover, the Beaker-folk coasted along the southern and eastern shores of Great Britain, for maritime traffic was no new thing in these parts. Some, who landed near the Moray Frith, seem to have been accompanied by a few pure Alpines,[254] whose blood has left a marked effect on the present population of Aberdeenshire.[255] While they settled in the upland regions of England and Scotland, especially on the open downs and limestone hills, they penetrated very little to the west, which was dominated by the Prospectors. Few signs of their presence appear in Wales, and none that can be depended upon in Ireland.[256] It has been thought by some that they spoke some form of Aryan or Indo-European tongue, and it has been conjectured that it was they who introduced into these isles the Goidelic or Gaelic dialects. This opinion has recently been restated by M. Loth.[257] This view has been well answered by Rice Holmes,[258] and his arguments are as valid to-day as when they were written. We are forced to admit that we are in total ignorance of the language spoken by the Beaker-folk.