ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE CLYDE VALLEY. 

 BY EBENEZER DUNCAN, M.D. 



PEEHISTORIC. 



THE only evidence of existence of man in the Clyde Valley during the palaeo- 

 lithic period is that adduced by the Rev. Frederick Smith in a paper entitled 

 u Palaeolithic Remains in Scotland'" 1 published in 1898. He figures there 

 certain water-worn stones obtained on the shores of the Clyde Estuary 

 which have a striking resemblance to palaeolithic weapons, and are similiar 

 to those found in the Somrne Valley and in England. He believes that the 

 floor of the Clyde Estuary formed the hunting ground of palaeolithic man 

 during the period of the great upheaval in Scotland, when the ground now 

 covered by the waters of the Clyde Estuary was covered by forest trees, 

 among which the Mammalian Fauna of the Pleistocene age were abundantly 

 found. He alleges that stone weapons, formed by human agency in that 

 remote age, have been floated up from the bed of the Estuary by sea-weed 

 during storms and cast upon the shore at Ayr and Prestwick, where he found 

 them lying. Unfortunately we have no means of ascertaining the physical 

 characters of the race of men who fashioned these weapons, if weapons they 

 be. The remains of the Mammoth, the Reindeer, The Irish Elk, the Urus, 

 and the horse have been found in the interglacial beds of Scotland, but no 

 bones of palaeolithic man have hitherto been found either in the Clyde 

 Valley or elsewhere in Scotland. 



PRIMITIVE RACE. 



Archaeological investigation has proved that in the neolithic age the primi- 

 tive race inhabiting Scotland was Iberian in type, i.e. short statured and long 

 headed people who buried their dead in chambered graves of the long 

 barrow type. The first evidence of the existence of this race in the Clyde 

 valley was found by the writer a few years ago in the Island of Arran, where 

 he discovered a tumulus containing chambered graves. Several human 

 skeletons were found by him in one of these chambers. From the construc- 

 tion of the graves, the condition of the bones and the physical characters of 

 the skeletons, he formed the opinion that they were the remains of a pre- 

 Aryan Iberian race, 2 short in stature, dark in complexion, and with Dolicho- 

 cephalic skulls. These bones were examined by Professor John Young, and 

 may now be found in the Hunterian Museum of the University of Glasgow. 



^Proceedings of the Philos. Soc. Glasgow, vol. xxx., page 35. 



- "The Scottish Races," Proceedings of Glasgoio Philosophical Soc., vol. 28. 



