256 Dr. J. O. Garson [April 20, 



especially in Wilts and Gloucestershire, the part of the country 

 occupied by the Drobuni or Silures at the beginning of the historic 

 period. They have been found in considerable numbers in Yorkshire, 

 Derbyshire and Stafford. Huxley and Wilson have described the 

 same race from horned cairns in Caithness, and from other places in 

 Scotland. I have described them from Wiltshire, Middlesex, York- 

 shire and from Orkney. 



There is some doubt of their existence at an early period in 

 Ireland, as Professor Macalister informs me that he has not recog- 

 nised them, and no long barrows are found there. Sir William 

 Wilde, on the other hand, recognised Neolithic skulls from 

 Somersetshire, as identical with certain ancient Irish skulls. Any 

 skulls from Ireland I have seen which have shown characters 

 similar to the Neolithic skulls from England, are of later date, but 

 Huxley describes them from chambered tombs, peat mosses and 

 river deposits of Ireland, of the long, narrow type. I think we may 

 conclude as regards Ireland, that although it is doubtful whether the 

 Neolithic people were there at as early a date as in Britain, certainly 

 they were there later. 



The characters of the skeletons are well marked. The skull is 

 large and well formed, the calvaria is long and projDortionally 

 narrow, having a cephalic index of about 70, and of oval shape. 

 The superciliary ridges and glabella are moderately or even feebly 

 developed, the forehead is w 7 ell formed, narrow, and curves gracefully 

 to the occiput, which is full and rounded. The upper margins of 

 the orbits are thin, and the malar bones are never prominent, the 

 profile of the face is vertical, and there is no tendency to prog- 

 nathism, the chin is prominent, the symphesial angle is from 70° to 

 80°, the length of the face from the root of the nose is comparatively 

 short, but, as a whole, it is oval in form ; the jaws are small and fine, 

 the teeth are of medium size, and generally in a good state of preser- 

 vation, not much worn down ; the last molar is the smallest tooth of 

 that series. The facial characters are mild, and without exaggerated 

 development in any one direction ; the same may be said of the cal- 

 varia generally. The age of the persons to whom they belong averages, 

 according to Dr. Thurnam, forty-five years, which would seem to 

 indicate that the duration of life at that time was rather short. 



The stature of the Neolithic people is short. From Dr. 

 Thurnam's measurements of the femora of twenty-five skeletons, it 

 averages 1 ■ 674 metres (5 ft. 6 J in.) by Eollet's formula, but from 

 my own observations on other specimens which have passed through 

 my hands, I am inclined to consider this is too high an average. In 

 their general characters the bones are slender, often with a well 

 marked linea aspera on the femur and platycnemic tibia, which would 

 show that the Neolithic people still led a very active life as hunters. 

 Dr. Thurnam has noted that sometimes two or more of the cervical 

 or dorsal vertebrae have a tendency to anchylosis, but I cannot say 

 that I have ever seen this. 



