624 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION^ 1912. 



of the lasting impress of the same origin, or because in these countries, which face one 

 another, the likeness of the climate has given the body the same form. But it ia 

 probable that the Gauls had settled in the country so near to them.^ 



The Britons with brown hair are placed by Tacitus in the southwest 

 of the GaUic country. "The tawny color, the generally curly hair of 

 the Silures and then- location opposite Spain suggest that the ancient 

 Iberians had crossed the sea to settle in the country." ^ 



The Spanish origin of the Silures does not seem in doubt, and as for 

 the Caledonians (Scots) of German type, they must be, in our opinion, 

 the descendants of th,e Celts who invaded the British Islands toward 

 the seventh or eighth century B. C, or even of blonds preceding the 

 Celts. However that may be, it may be assumed, on the authority of 

 Tacitus, that in ancient time there existed in Great Britain both 

 blond and brown indigenes, just as at present there are blond and 

 brown Enghshmen. 



StiU, according to tradition, the blonds were in majority there 

 during the Mddle Ages, not so much on account of the immigration 

 of Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans, but because the blonds were 

 already numerous there before such immigration. 



"It seems perfectly proved," says Prichard, "that the color at 

 present predommating in the British Isles differs markedly from that 

 of all the races which entered into the formation of the present 

 people. We have seen that the ancient Celtic tribes belonged to a 

 blond race, and such also were the Anglo-Saxons, the Danes, and the 

 Normans, lastlj'', the Caledonians (Scots) and the Gaelic (Irish), like- 

 wise, were a people with white skin and blond hair, and yet these 

 pecuharities by no means form a constant characteristic among the 

 mixed descendants of these blue-eyed races." ^ 



According to Beddoe, the people of modern England, as regards 

 the eyes and the hair, are darker than those of Scotland. 



Denmark. — The best-known Danish skuUs of the Stone Age are 

 those of the celebrated tumulus of Borreby, in the southwest of 

 Sjalland Island, which are preserved with other skulls of the suc- 

 ceeding ages in the Museum of the Antiquities of the North at Copen- 

 hagen. Virchow, who had measured them, found for 25 skulls of 

 Borreby a middle index of 79. Among them there were bracliy- 

 cephals as wcU as dolichocephals, but the latter were in the majority. 

 Other neohthic skuUs of Denmark (Islands of Moen, Falster, and 

 Langland) were combined for measurement with those of Bon*eby, and 

 yielded the somewhat lower middle index of 77 for a total of 41 skulls. 



A particular characteristic of a certain number of these skulls con- 

 sists in a marked jutting out of the orbital vaults, similar to that of 



> Tacitus. Life of Agricola, Sect. XI. 



2 Idem. Op. cit. 



s Prichard. Histoire natur. de rhomme. French translation by Roulin, Paris, 1843. 



