196 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



height was greater than the breadth. Those measured by 

 Dr. Thurnam gave a mean length-breadth index 71-4, whilst 

 Dr. Rolleston's series were 72-6. 



The round barrows were constructed by a bronze-using 

 people. The crania obtained in them were, as a rule, 

 brachycephalic. Of twenty-five skulls measured by Dr. 

 Thurnam seventeen had the length-breadth index 80 and 

 upwards, and in six of these the index was 85 and upwards. 

 Only four were dolichocephalic, whilst in three the index 

 ranged from 77 to 79. In the brachycephalic skulls the 

 height was less than the breadth. 



As similar physical conditions prevailed both in England 

 and Scotland during the Polished Stone and Bronze periods, 

 there is a strong presumption that the two races had, in 

 succession to each other, migrated from South to North 

 Britain. Unfortunately very few skulls have been preserved 

 which can with certainty be ascribed to Neolithic man in 

 Scotland, but those that have been examined from Papa 

 Westray, the cairn of Get, and Oban, are dolichocephalic, 

 and doubtless of the same race as the builders of the English 

 long barrows. 



Seventeen skulls from interments belonging to the 

 Bronze period have been examined by the author. The 

 mean length-breadth index of twelve was 81-4, and the 

 highest index was 88-6. In each skull the height was 



o o 



less than the breadth. In the other five specimens the 

 mean index was 74 ; the majority, therefore, were brachy- 

 cephalic. In only one specimen was the jaw prognathic ; 

 the nose was almost always long and narrow ; the upper 

 border of the orbit was, as a rule, thickened, and the height 

 of the orbit was materially less than the width. The 

 capacity of the cranium in three men ranged from 1380 to 

 1555 cc. ; the mean being 1462 cc. In stature the Bronze 

 men were somewhat taller than Neolithic men. The thigh 

 bones of the Bronze Age skeletons gave a mean platymeric 

 index 75-1, materially below the average of Si -8 obtained 

 by Dr. Hepburn from measurements of the femora of modern 

 Scots. 1 The tibiae of the same skeletons gave a mean platy- 

 knemic index 68-3 ; intermediate, therefore, between their 



1 "Journal of Anatomy and Physiology," October 1896. 



