866 REPORT— 1902. 



whole of Germany were fair-haired and that 40 per cent, were blue-eyed. 

 If the combination of these two characteristics is considered — that is, 

 what is called the blond type — the proportion was found to be 31 -8 per 

 cent. The distribution, however, was not uniform. In North Germany 

 43 per cent, of the children were of the blond type, while in South 

 Germany the percentage was only 18. This evidence, which embraces 

 the quantitative determination of the colour characteristics, is much more 

 valuable than mere general statements supplied by history. Historical 

 evidence, however, can by no means be ignored, for it forms a basis for 

 deduction as to jjre-existing races. This was brought prominently for- 

 ward in the survey of the school children of East Aberdeenshire, which 

 was carried out by my colleague Mr. Gray and myself in 1896. The 

 hair colour most prevalent among Aberdeenshire children is that of 

 brown in varying shades. It was found, however, that among the 14,500 

 children surveyed 7 per cent, were red-haired, but in some parts there 

 were 20 per cent, of red-haired children. This high percentage appears 

 to be distinctly peculiar to Scotland, for among the 6,700,000 school 

 children of Germany only •2.5 per cent, were red-haired. If one takes the 

 description given by Tacitus of the appearance of the Caledonians to be 

 accurate, it would be open to infer that, among the general population of 

 Aberdeenshire, a distinct group is descended from that ancient and 

 warlike people. I think it can be reasonably advanced that the survey 

 of a county is scarcely sufficient as a basis for ethnological deductions. 

 One has only the statistics from a fraction of the race, and many factors 

 tell against presuming the general population of a county to be an average 

 of the race. The survey of Scotland, however, has now been undertaken 

 by a special committee, and the teachers are to be invited to co-operate 

 and to supply the necessary information by the end of the present year. 

 It is extremely desirable that a similar survey should be carried out in 

 Ireland. The Irish, as a people, are said to be the most ancient in the 

 British Isles, and their early contact with Scotland and the Scottish people 

 is specially interesting to the two countries. The close relationship of the 

 Gaelic language to the ancient Irish points to a time when the High- 

 landers of Scotland and the Irish formed one racial group, speaking a 

 common language ; while the existence and distribution of the lake- 

 dwellings in Ulster and in Galloway point to early immigration from 

 Ireland to Scotland, long before the age of Columcille. The antiquary 

 is engaged in unravelling the mystery of the more complete megalithic 

 monuments such as Stonehenge and New Grange, and the hundreds of 

 fragmentary ones distributed over the British Isles, of which Ireland and 

 Scotland have the larger share. The historian has still — and so has the 

 philologist and everybody else — in the origin of the Picts and the origin 

 of the Scots and Kelts a problem of the greatest difficulty to solve. We 

 can render some assistance in dealing with these most interesting racial 

 questions by accurately describing the physical appearance and the phy- 

 sical characteristics of the people of the present day who speak the Irish, 

 the Gaelic, and the English tongues. This we can do without in the 

 least committing ourselves to what would be quite an eiToneous deduction, 

 namely, that all those who speak these languages are necessarily descended 

 from the people who originally spoke them. As a preliminary to the 

 survey of the physical and mental characteristics of a people, the survey 

 of the colour characteristics is of special importance. Such a survey could 

 be speedily carried out under the direction of a special Irish committee, 



