UPON THE SERIES OF PREHISTORIC CRANIA. 281 



I have already remarked, pp. 224, 225 supra, that intermediate 

 forms, belonging distinctively to neither the one nor the other of 

 the two great types of dolichocephaly or brachyeephaly, are 

 not common in these series. In the skulls of the stone age in 

 Great Britain we find no unambiguous traces at all of any 

 admixture with the brachycephalic type ; and even amongst 

 skulls from barrows of the bronze age, when the two races were 

 living and dying together, it is rare to find skulls which combine, 

 as the ' Mischformen ' of the German anthropologists do, the 

 contour and picturesque peculiarities of the one type with the 

 proportions and measurements of the other. Still such forms are 

 to be found, and there are two principal varieties of skull from the 

 later period, the existence of which is perhaps better explained 

 by the hypothesis of their being the result of intercrossing than in 

 any other way. And, firstly, I should be inclined to consider the 

 very large size ! of certain crania of the bronze period as due to an 



however recently shown (see Virchow, p. II, 'Beitrage zur physischen Anthropologic 

 der Deutschen,' 1876, Berlin Abhandlungen) that the physical characteristics of light 

 hair, blue eyes, light skin, so constantly spoken of by the ancient writers, make up 

 still no less than 35-47 per cent, of the children at school in Prussia, though the pro- 

 portion falls to 20-36 per cent, in Bavaria, brunettes being in this latter country 21-09 

 per cent, against 11-63 in Prussia. 



1 Without extending our view to the lower animals, it is easy to convince ourselves 

 that a great increase of size is very often at the present day a result of the inter- 

 crossing of two varieties of our own species. Von Baer, on the occasion of the famous 

 meeting of anthropologists at Gottingen in 1861 (see ■ Zusammenkunft einiger 

 Anthropologen,' p. 22), drew attention to the increase of vigour which Baron Osten 

 Sacken had observed amongst North American half-breeds ; and Professor Daniel 

 Wilson, in his ' Memoirs on Hybridity,' p. 27, 1875, writes with great particularity to 

 the same effect in the following words : ' The Half-breeds are a large and robust race, 

 with greater powers of endurance than the native Indian. Mr. S. J. Dawson, of the 

 Ked River Exploring Expedition, speaks of the French Half-breeds as a gigantic race 

 as compared with the French Canadians of Lower Canada. Professor Hind refers in 

 equally strong language to their great physical powers and vigorous muscular develop- 

 ment ; and the Venerable Archdeacon Hunter, of Red River, replies in answer to my 

 inquiry, "In what respects do the Half-breed Indians differ from the pure Indians as 

 to habits of life, courage, strength, increase of numbers, &c. ?" "They are superior in 

 every respect, both mentally and physically." Much concurrent evidence points to the 

 fact that the families descended from mixed parentage are larger than those of the 

 whites ; and though the results are in some degree counteracted by a tendency to 

 consumption, yet it does not amount to such a source of diminution on the whole as 

 to interfere with their steady numerical increase.' Similarly, Mr. Huth (' Marriage of 

 near Kin,' 1875) writes, p. 308, 'that crosses are beneficial in very often effecting an 

 increase of size in the progeny, exceeding that of either parent, is established beyond 

 doubt.' Pp. 324 and 325; 'The Zamboes, or offspring of Negroes and American 



