1 66 



FACTS AND FANCIES. 



reduced the land to Its present limits, and that 

 the dwarfish race which succeeded came in as 

 the appropriate accompaniment of a diminished 

 land-surface and a less genial climate in the 

 early modern period. Both of these races 

 are properly palaeolithic, and are supposed to 

 antedate the period of polished stone ; but 

 this may, to a great extent, be a prejudice of 

 collectors, who have arrived at a foregone 

 conclusion as to the distinctness of these 

 periods (Figure ii). Judging from the great 

 cranial capacity of the older race and the small 

 number of their skeletons found, it would be 

 fair to suppose that they represent rude out- 

 lying tribes belonging to races which elsewhere 

 had attained to greater culture. ' 



Lastly, both of these old European races 

 were Turanian, Mongolian, or American in 

 their head-forms and features, as well as In 

 their habhs. Implements, and arts. To illustrate 

 this, In so far as the older of the two races Is 

 concerned, I have carefully compared collec- 

 tions of American Indian skulls with casts 

 and figures representing the form and di- 

 mensions of some of the oldest European 

 crania above referred to. Some of the 

 American skulls may fairly be compared 



