52 NATIONALITY AND RACE 



migrations of races, risings and fallings of popula- 

 tion, exterminations, blendings and replacements 

 of which we know nothing. In remote, prehistoric 

 times, although much later than the earliest traces 

 of the presence of man, a great part of Europe and 

 North Africa (which from the point of view of 

 geographical zoology is European) was inhabited 

 by an extremely long-headed race with a lower 

 cranial index than is found amongst any of the 

 inhabitants of modern Europe. There is a close 

 resemblance between this primitive population and 

 the modern American Eskimo in skull-structure, 

 stature, and culture as shown by habits and imple- 

 ments, and there is a good deal of support for the 

 theory that this people retreated northwards with 

 the receding ice of the glacial epoch. They were 

 followed by the Mediterranean race, almost certainly 

 a derivative of an African negroid stock. These were 

 the people known to anthropology as the " long 

 barrow type," from the shape of their burial mounds 

 and excavations. They also were very long-headed, 

 although the cranial index was not so low as that 

 of their predecessors. They were short of stature 

 and associated with the type of culture generally 

 known as neolithic. They were ignorant of the use 

 of metals, except gold, which was employed in orna- 

 ments, but their implements and weapons of stone 

 were well-shaped and highly polished, showing a 

 striking contrast with the rude workmanship of their 

 predecessors. The race persists as the basal popula- 

 tion of the northern and southern shores of the Medi- 

 terranean, of the Iberian Peninsula and of the south 

 of Italy and France. Further north in France and 



