2^,6 



NA TURE 



[December 24, 190S 



largely occupied with miscellaneous analytical work, but 

 chemists are now being appointed to each province, and 

 Dr. Leather will be left free for research work. A pot- 

 culture house has been built, and drain gauges made. 



As might be expected, the mycologist, Dr. Butler, has 

 a very large number of plant diseases to deal with, and 

 the essential preliminary inquiries have been hampered 

 by want of assistants and of a reference herbarium ; these 

 difficulties are being steadily overcome. 



Mr. Maxwell Lefroy has already rendered considerable 

 service to Indian agriculture by his entomological work ; 

 the life-histories of injurious insects are under investiga- 

 tion, and the insecticidal methods suggested have reached 

 the stage of field trials. 



The department issues two publications : — (i) the Agri- 

 cultural Journal of India, a quarterly journal intended 

 for the use of educated Indian agriculturists and general 

 readers interested in agriculture ; (2) the Scientific 

 Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India. 



The former must certainly rank among the most 

 attractive agricultural journals published, if only for its 

 beautifully illustrated descriptions of native husbandry ; it 

 also contains accounts, written for the practical man, of 

 the experimental work done at Pusa and elsewhere. The 

 Memoirs are' the scientific papers by the members of the 

 Pusa staff ; they are widely distributed, and are readily 

 obtainable on application. The system of publishing 

 scientific work in this way has obvious disadvantages, but 

 is said to involve less loss of time than if the papers were 

 sent to a home journal. In most cases purely Indian 

 problems are dealt with ; we need only mention the Indian 

 cottons (Gammie), Indian wheat rusts (Butler and Hay- 

 man), the composition of Indian rain and dew (Leather), 

 of Indian oil seeds (Leather), Lefroy's papers on the 

 tobacco caterpillar, the castor semi-looper, the rice-bug. 

 and others. This is as it should be ; general fundamental 

 problems are best worked out here or in Europe or 

 America, where the number of workers is greater and 

 where it is easy to get into touch with those able to 

 render useful assistance. E. J. Russell. 



WHO BUILT THE BRITISH STONE 

 CIRCLES? '^ 



CTONE circles are prehistoric monuments of a kind 

 which must be familiar to everybody who has seen 

 Stonehenge or any of the other numerous examples to be 

 found in the British Isles. They are to be found chiefly 

 in Great Britain. I believe there are few, if any, examples 

 in Ireland ; but a complete chart showing the distribution of 

 stone circles has yet to be made. 



The genuine stone circle apparently occurs only in the 

 British Isles. Most, if not all, of the circles found in 

 other countries are merely " retaining walls " left after 

 the tumulus which they retained had been removed. 

 Avenues and dolmens, which are found associated with 

 stone circles in Britain, also occur in other countries. The 

 dolmens especially are widely distributed, generally near 

 the sea coast of the Mediterranean, in the west of France, 

 in the north of Germany, in Denmark and Scandinavia, 

 and in the British Isles. 



It would appear, therefore, that the stone circle was 

 an improvement on the dolmen and avenue, not introduced 

 from abroad, but invented in the British Isles. 



The stone circles of Britain vary somewhat in the details 

 of their structure. Mr. Lewis divides them into three 

 classes ; — 



(i) The Dartmoor type, which is found mostly in Corn- 

 wall and Devon, and consists of a single circle. 



(2) The Aberdeenshire type, of whirh the distinguishing 

 feature is the large recumbent stone placed between two 

 of the upright stones in the southern part of the circle. 



(3) The Inverness type, of which the distinguishing feature 

 is a large domed chamber with an alley leading thereto, 

 covered by a cairn, with entrances towards the south. 

 When the cairn is removed the foundations show three 

 concentric circles. 



1 Paper by Mr. J. Gray read before Section H of the British Association 

 at the Dublin meeting, September, igo8. 



NO. 2043, VOL. 79] 



These modifications appear to be due to idiosyncrasies 

 of different tribes of the same race. The type is simplest 

 in Devon and Cornwall, and increases in complexity and 

 elaboration in the Aberdeen and Inverness types. 



The Distribution of Stone Circles in Britain. 



Stone circles do not appear to occur in the eastern 

 counties of England, nor in the north-western counties of 

 the mainland of Scotland. They are found in the greatest 

 number in Cornwall, Devon, South Wales, Shropshire, 

 North Wales, Derbyshire, Cumberland, Wigton, Kirkcud- 

 bright, and Dumfries, Arran, Perth, Aberdeenshire, Inver- 

 ness, Orkney, and Lewis. 



Their distribution would be simply explained if we assume 

 that the race who built them first settled in Cornwall and 

 Devon, then migrated up through Wales and Lancashire 

 into south-west Scotland. From thence they passed north 

 to the mouth of the Clyde, crossed through the midlands 

 of Scotland to the mouth of the Tay, whence they moved 

 along the east coast through east Aberdeenshire, then west 

 to Inverness, and after that north through Caithness to 

 tlie Orkney Isles, the migration finally coming to an end 

 in the Isle of Lewis. 



That the direction of the migration was from south to 

 north is supported by the fact that the structure of the 

 circle becomes more elaborate as we move northwards. 



Associated Place-names. 



If these stone circles in Britain have all been erected 

 by the same race, one would expect to find some common 

 root in the oldest place-names within the stone-circle area. 

 The river names usually are the oldest place-names, and 

 in Britain, at least, they appear to be derived from the 

 names of tribes, who at some very ancient time settled 

 on their banks. According to Ptolemy's geography, the 

 district now covered by Cornwall and Devon was inhabited 

 during the Roman occupation by a tribe called the 

 Dumnoni. There can be little doubt that this tribal 

 name, by a process of phonetic decay, has been trans- 

 formed into the modern name of Devon. If confirma- 

 tion be required of this, it may be pointed out that a 

 tribe also named Dumnoni is mentioned by Ptolemy as 

 occupying the midlands of Scotland, and that they have 

 left the same phonetic transformation of their name in the 

 River Devon, a tributary of the Forth flowing through 

 Perth, Kinross, and Clackmannan. 



There are four rivers Dee within the stone-circle area 

 and none outside. Now it is clear from Ptolemy's geo- 

 graphy that the primitive form of Dee was Dcva, so that 

 Dee is from the same root as Devon. The following is a 

 list of names of rivers within the stone-circle area, which 

 apparently are phonetic modifications of the same root : — 

 Tamar, Taw, Severn, Taff, Teifi, Dovey, Dee (North 

 Wales), Dove, Tame, Dee (affluent of Lune), Devon 

 (Perth), Tay (ancient Tavus), Dee (Aberdeen), Deveron. 



There are only very few of these river names outside 

 the circle area, .ts Thames, Teviot, Tweed. 



The stone-circle race from Cornwall to Aberdeen appears 

 to have had one common tribal name, *' Devonian," or 

 some phonetic equivalent of that name. No doubt they had 

 other tribal names, but I do not propose to venture further 

 in this direction at present. 



Anatomical Characters of the Race with which Stone 

 Circles are Associated. 



I consider that a far more trustworthy guide than philo- 

 logy to the affinities and origin of a race is to be found 

 in the analysis of ineasurements of its anatomical 

 characters. This assumes, of course, that the average 

 physical characters of a race will remain practically 

 identical for vast periods of time if there is no great change 

 in the racial environment. For example, the dimensions of 

 the pre-dynastic Nagada skulls (measured by Miss Fawcett) 

 have been found to be practically the same as those of the 

 modern Egyptians living in the same district (measured 

 by Dr. C. S. Myers). This means a permanency of average 

 dimensions extending over 8000 to 10,000 years. 



A change of environment (even though it is consider- 

 able) must, I believe, act for a very long period on a 

 race before it perceptibly changes its racial characters. 



