NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 43 



opinion of the writer the evidence is much too incomplete for any such inference 

 as this, were it not equally obnoxious to the objection mentioned in the early 

 part of our rcniurks — that of a certain inversion in the order of sequence — by 

 representing the complex barrow builders as jjreceding those who raised simple 

 barrows, which is contrary to all experience. There arc good archaeological rea- 

 sons, it is true, for believing that the chambered Barrows of Great Britain be- 

 long to what is denominated " the stone period," and that they are very early, 

 but that the builders of them can with any good confidence be referred to the 

 earliest portion of the stone period, seems to us to want [jrobability as much as 

 it wants conclusive evidence for its suj)port. The circumstance that these long 

 skulls have usually been found in chambered Barrows may be a mere contin- 

 gency, little more than accidental, and further inquiry may not improbably 

 prove this. For it must not be supposed that the skulls of ancient Britons are 

 numerous, or have often been saved from the wreck of their primeval sepul- 

 chres, and especially that many of the dolicho-cephalic crania from Barrows 

 of a chambered character have been met with. Strangers to the facts of the 

 case might have supposed both these things to be true, but indeed they are far 

 from being so. Specimens of crania of ancient Britons are rare objects, those 

 in anything like a perfect state, very rare, and all specimens are becoming rarer 

 every day. British Barrows have been undergoing destructiou for ages, having 

 been the prey of idle curiosity or cupidity always, and the skulls of those once 

 so sacredly enhearsed in them by the tender hands of mourning friends and re- 

 lations have always been especially exposed to destruction, possibly from the 

 feeling of ignorant terror, which is so apt to diverge into ferocity and destriic- 

 tiveness. But whatever be the cause, the fact receives daily confirmation that 

 when ancient tombs are accidently opened by uninstructed and unscientific per- 

 sons, the relics are plundered and the fragile bony remains are at once violent- 

 ly broken into fragments. Therefore objects such as those with which our at- 

 tention is occupied are not numerous, and have not received that notice to 

 which they are entitled. But to return to the dolicho-cephalic crania of the 

 chambered Barrows, supposed to indicate a " pre-Celtic race," and upon which 

 has chiefly been built the mighty doctrine — certainly mighty for such a meagre 

 foundation — that an entire race of a distinct peo])le, in some verj'^ remote period 

 of antiquity, migrated to the shores of the British islands and invaded them, 

 established themselves therein and dwelt there for ages. In some cases the 

 evidence for this vast hypothesis — countenanced by ethnologists of the greatest 

 learning, men well meriting the high reputation they enjoy — maj' be explained 

 in a much simpler way. In a Derbyshire Barrow, called Long Lowe, three 

 crania of this type occurred, which we are strongly inclined to regard as having 

 a family relation, and as exhibiting a mere family peculiarity. One a long flat 

 skull of beautiful outline, is that of a man, aged about 40 years ; another, that 

 of a woman somewhat older ; and the third, of a girl under 10 years of age, who 

 may be concluded to have been the daughter of the two above named p;vrents. 

 Another of the Derbyshire chambered Barrows, which has been ])roductive of 

 dolicho-cephalic crania, is situated u[)on " Five Wells Hill," and is unquestion- 

 ably of vast antiquity ; but we possess a skull from among the lowest interments 

 in this Barrow, which is of brachy-cephalic form, and the existence of which, 

 in the position in which it was found, we cannot help thinking shakes the 

 theory of the dolicho-cephalic pre-Celtic race to its very foundations. In fine, 

 we may remark, that we see no sufficient ground for admitting a favorite hypo- 

 thesisofthepresent day, that another race of people preceded the ancient Britons ; 

 which kind of doctrine has not been confined to the British isles, but took its 

 rise in Denmark and Norway, where it has received its chief attention and illus- 

 tration, although it should be mentioned, that the order of precedency has been 

 inverted there, and the brachy-cephalic, not the dolicho-cephalic people, have 

 been supposed to have come first. 



III. The next important aberrant form is one that is remarkable for hori- 

 zontal expansion, and which we have denominated plaiy -cephalic. The cranium 

 is not deficient in longitude, but does not impress the eye by its length on ac- 

 1857. 



