128 THE NATURAL HISTOET REVIEW. 



extreme antiquity of the people. The corpse was extended at full length 

 on the ground, the stone cist was built up round it, with flat blocks 

 of flagstone, and the whole was covered with a light mound of stone 

 and earth. There were no traces of habitation about this mound ; it 

 had been used solely as a place of sepulture. About the centre of it 

 w^as found the coffin of one who appeared by the care bestowed on 

 his burial to be the chief of the tribe, and close by his hand were 

 discovered 15 stone weapons of rude manufacture — a hatchet, sundry 

 spearheads, and knives or scrapers. Mr. Laing concluded that these 

 remains belonged to the early stone period, and that the race to 

 whom they belonged were part of the primitive population of these 

 islands, who in that remote corner of the coointry had long preserved 

 the simplicity and rudeness of their modes of life. 



Professor Huxley then pointed out with elaborate minuteness the 

 peculiarities of the human bones, from which he concluded that they 

 were the remains of two separate and distinct races. The first was 

 typified by a skull which, as the members would see, was large, capacious, 

 and well arched. In fact, there were few of the able men present, 

 the Professor said, who had a better developed cranium, and it closely 

 resembled that type which was described in the Crania Bi'itannica of 

 Davis and Thurnham as the " ancient British" skull. The pelvis 

 belonging to this skull was such as might be possessed by any well- 

 grown muscular Englishman of the present day. The skulls belong- 

 ing to the second race were of a much lower order — narrow, low- 

 formed, sloping upwards towards the vertex, and then downwards 

 again, with a great occipital protuberance, and a remarkably pro- 

 truding upper lip. The pelvis, too, of this race was most peculiar, 

 its proportions being diametrically opposite to those of the present 

 European type, and the extraordinary development of the muscular 

 ridges showed a rude and wild character. These skulls were com- 

 parable to what the Professor in a former paper had called " the river- 

 bed type," and came closer than any others to the skull of the 

 Australian native. One skull which the Professor pointed to was 

 a woman's, and was as degraded and villanous in its form as any he 

 had seen. The tibia an-d the forearm, too, of this woman were out of 

 the ordinary proportion, which was a further sign of degradation. 

 The Professor, ia conclusion, said the remains aff'orded no ground 

 for the theory that a " round-headed" had preceded the " long-headed" 

 race in the occupation of these islands. 



