38 



Professor Arthur Keith 



[Feb. 20, 



ancient silted up lake, in the North of Italy. The animal remains 

 found in the same deposit belong to an early part of the Pleistocene 

 period. In size and shape the skulls of the very ancient ItaUan and 

 of the Scottish poet are in close agreement. 



It is when we enquire into the racial origin of Burns that the 

 value of the cranial cast as a document becomes evident. As I 

 examined the cast, its resemblance to certain skulls discovered and 

 described by Professor Bryce became manifest. In 1896 and again 

 in 1900, Professor Bryce explored the Cairns of Arran * systematic- 



BURNS 



75 O 



MODERN ENGLISH 



Fig. 11. — Anterior view of the cranial cast of Robert Burns' compared with 

 the same aspect of a skull of moderate dimensions. 



ally and thoroughly, and placed the results of his investigations on 

 record. In two cairns — those of Torlin and Clachaig — he found the 

 remains of a number of human individuals ; six of the skulls were 

 sufficiently preserved to give us an exact conception of the head form 

 of the people who lived in Arran and interred their dead in megalithic 

 chambered cairns. They were people living in the Stone Age, before 

 bronze was introduced to Scotland, ^\e may safely regard them as 

 belonging to a period which ended at least 2000 years before the 

 time of Christ. 



Now, the type of skull found by Professor Bryce, in the Cairns 



* See Proc. Soc. Antiq. of Scotland, 1902, p. 79. 



