1894.] on Early British Races. 257 



On the continent of Europe remains of the Neolithic people are 

 found chiefly in caves, and show much the same state of culture and 

 physical features as just described, as for instance the well-known 

 Cro-Magnon and Engis skulls, but the sequence of their existence 

 there is not so well defined as in Britain, where they held, appa- 

 rently, undisputed possession of the country for a considerable 

 period. Indeed, it is only lately that Continental anthropologists 

 have admitted their priority to that of people presenting the 

 characters of the next race we shall have to deal with. 



From the evidence to hand, it seems probable that the Neolithic 

 people at one time occupied the whole of the west of Europe ; and I 

 agree with several other observers in considering that they are to be 

 identified with the old Iberian race, of which the Basque may be 

 considered a remnant. There is, certainly, a strong similarity 

 between Basque skulls and those of the Neolithic people of Britain. 



Unlike Palaeolithic man, the Neolithic people have never become 

 extinct in Britain, and their descendants exist to the present time. 

 It is true that subsequent invaders drove them in many instances to 

 particular parts of the country, where they remained isolated for a 

 long period, as early history and the excavations of General Pitt 

 Rivers and others show, but skeletons from ancient tombs indicate 

 that they also mixed with their conquerors. The observations of 

 several anthropologists show that they are associated with the short, 

 dark-complexioned, and dolichocephalic people found in considerable 

 proportions in some parts of the country, especially in certain parts 

 of the west of England. 



The next people to appear upon the scene previous to the dawn 

 of history, are those who were in possession of the greater part of 

 Britain at the time of the Roman invasion. They came into Britain 

 from northern France and Belgium at a considerably earlier period, 

 and gained possession of the country from the Neolithic race. These 

 are the so-called Celts. Their advent is marked by the introduction 

 of the use of metals into Britain, and they are associated with the 

 Bronze Age. From the custom they had of interring their dead 

 (whom they chiefly cremated) in barrows of a circular shape, they 

 are often known as the Round Barrow people. They show a marked 

 advance in civilisation beyond that of Neolithic times, as they were 

 agriculturists, and lived by tilling the soil ; they manufactured 

 weapons and ornaments of bronze and richly decorated pottery ; 

 their flint implements also were of better make, as evidenced by 

 their beautiful barbed arrow-heads. To this period belong many of 

 the curious Lake dwellings found all over Great Britain and Ireland, 

 Picts' houses of Scotland, and Bee-hive houses of Ireland. 



Their osteological remains show that the skull was large, with 

 strongly developed superciliary ridges and glabella, the brow well 

 formed and broad, the upper occipital region not projecting, the 

 tuberosity being the most prominent. In general form the brain 

 case is broader and rounder than in the Neolithic race, the cephalic 



