V. 



ON SOME FIXED POINTS IN BRITISH 



ETHNOLOGY. 



[1871.] 



In view of the many discussions to which the 

 complicated problems offered by the ethnology of 

 the British Islands have given rise, it may be use- 

 ful to attempt to pick out, from amidst the con- 

 fused masses of assertion and of inference, those 

 propositions which appear to rest upon a secure 

 foundation, and to state the evidence by which 

 they are supported. Such is the purpose of the 

 present paper. 



Some of these well-based propositions relate to 

 the physical characters of the people of Britain 

 and their neighbours; while others concern the 

 languages which they spoke. I shall deal, in the 

 first place, with the physical questions. 



I. Eighteen hundred years ago the population 

 of Britain comprised people of two types of com- 

 plexion — the one fair, and the other dark. The 

 254 



