84 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



compartments, varying in height and breadth. The over-built cairns 

 sometimes reach enormous dimensions 75 feet in diameter and 15 

 feet in height are the measurements of one of the smaller of them 

 and may be surrounded by ditches or stone circles. 



A curious series of sepulchral cairns, designated " horned cairns," 

 were thoroughly investigated by Dr. Joseph Anderson. These occur 

 chiefly in Caithness and Orkney, and usually present four curved 

 horn- like projections from the body of the stones of which the cairns 

 are composed, falling gradually to the level of the ground. 



Stone circles present a few new features with their concentric 

 rings of monoliths. They always contain burials, either under a 

 central cairn chambered or not or near the uprights inside the 

 circle, or exceptionally outside the circle. Cremation is frequent, 

 especially in certain areas. Our own district is peculiarly rich in this 

 kind of monument, and here is found that peculiar type which exhibits 

 the feature known as the recumbent stone or altar and pillars. 

 Those three huge stones are invariably seen on the south or south- 

 west verge of the circle. They have given rise to much conjecture, 

 from the old " altar " theory to the more recent " gateway " hypothesis. 

 Short cists have received special attention from this Society, 

 and require but to be enumerated as among early methods of burial. 

 Though evidently constructed for the reception of the whole human 

 frame in a doubled-up condition, they sometimes contain comminuted 

 remains and urns of the drinking vessel type, ornaments and flints. 



Questions about the races that used these successive modes of 

 burial are still very much debated, but from the measurements of the 

 skulls and other bones, it has been pretty well established that the 

 dolichocephalic people were shorter in stature and feebler in build 

 than the braehycephalic tribes that succeeded them at what interval 

 we dare not yet venture to say. Many things lead us to conclude that 

 the two races were for long co-existent, and that their characteristics 

 and customs were blended together. It is of interest to mention that 

 Dr. Beddoe thinks he has found in the west of England a race corre- 

 sponding to the Silures of Tacitus black-haired, shorter in stature, 



