32G ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



skilled in the working and smelting of metals, and accom- 

 plished as masons. They are believed to have built the great 

 stone cohirs and caves in Ireland, and to have decorated the 

 stones of their sepulchres with carved ornamentation. To 

 these a Scandinavian origin has been attributed by some au- 

 thorities. The first two of these races were in conflict with 

 the third, the Milesian, who are described as having been a 

 brave, warlike, chivalrous, proud people, skilled in navigation. 

 Most of the Irish families, especially those having the prefix 

 O', claim to have descended from the old Milesian chiefs. 

 All these races are said to have spoken a common language, 

 and may have been derived from one Keltic stock. 15 A, 

 August 29, 1874, 280. 



EXHIBITION OF BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. 



Among other features proposed for the annual international 

 exhibitions by the British authorities is a series of objects il- 

 lustrating the ethnology and geography of the various races 

 and parts of the British empire, and it is intended to pursue 

 the work systematically, in the hope of ultimately forming a 

 great national museum of the empire, to be arranged for the 

 present in the galleries of the Royal Albert Hall. The com- 

 missioners remark, in a circular just issued by them, that many 

 portions of the empire are inhabited by aboriginal races, most 

 of which are undergoing rapid changes, and some of which 

 are disappearing altogether. These races are fast losing 

 their primitive characteristics and distinguishing traits. The 

 collections should embrace life-size and other figures repre- 

 senting the aboriginal inhabitants in their ordinary and gala 

 costumes; models of their dwellings; samples of their do- 

 mestic utensils, idols, weapons of war, boats, and canoes; 

 agricultural, musical, and manufacturing instruments and im- 

 plements ; samples of their industries ; and, in general, all 

 objects tending to show their present and ethnological posi- 

 tion and their state of civilization. 



It is proposed to receive for the exhibition of 1874 any 

 suitable collections, which will be grouped and classified 

 hereafter in their strict ethnological and geographical rela- 

 tions. As, however, there is at present great public interest 

 in the various tribes inhabiting the west coast of Africa, in- 

 cluding the Ashantees, with whom Great Britain is at war, 



