178 iiEPOiiT— 1875. 



caverns in the west of Europe, from North Britain to Gibraltar, for the purpose 

 of showing a similarity of race in the people occupying the sea-board of nearly the 

 whole of that part of Europe bounded by the Atlantic Ocean. The discoveries by 

 the author not only agreed with the authorities, but showed reasonable groimd 

 for supposing that the race of cave occupants known as dolichocephali inhabited 

 as far north as some of the extreme portions of North Britain. And as from a 

 subsequent joint occupancy it was apparent that an invading force in Britain, pro- 

 bably the Cymiy, had possessed themselves of the abodes and dwellings of these 

 people, it was probable that the Oymry had occupied territory a good deal further 

 north than was shown by INIi'. Skene and other writers on that subject. It would 

 seem, moreover, as a residt, that the occupants of the Mendip Hills would originally 

 have been of that race. This being so, the manner and customs of the early 

 inhabitants of the Mendip Hills would approximate to those of the dolichocephalic 

 occupants of Iberia and other western countries. In all such districts were found 

 dolmens and chambered tombs, which appeared to have succeeded as places of in- 

 terment, if not of residence (or, as the author considered, of both), to the natural 

 caverns occupied by the earlier generations of this people. The interments, even 

 when ui connexion with those of the brachycephali, a more powerful and invading 

 race, agreed in manner and accompaniments, including coarse pottery, bones of 

 animals, and neolithic implements. But a prominent feature, hitherto unnoticed, 

 to which the author drew attention, was the construction or an-angemeut of works 

 sepulchral and othei'wise in forms and devices simulating animal outlines ; those 

 on the Meadips at Blackdown, Priddy, Beacon Batch, and other places, as well as 

 those at Beacon hill near Maesbury, consist in each case of a series of mounds 

 arranged in studied positions representing veiy beautiful alternating curves, pre- 

 cisely analogous to the positions that would be assumed by vast serpents of similar 

 dimensions. The vast, stupendous, and terrible appeared the predominant charac- 

 teristic of such devices ; and it was noticeable that in all cases of such constructions, 

 and, so far as he had been able to investigate personally, in all places of such cave 

 occupancy also, the artificial emblems followed on some one or other natural simula- 

 tion, which had either suggested the idea directly, or led to its adoption in a some- 

 what varied form. That the simulations of animal forms which were to be found 

 upon the Mendip Hills, as well as elsewhere along the Atlantic districts, were con- 

 structed to represent deities, he thought there could be no doubt ; and as such simu- 

 lations appeared to be the result of uatui'al suggestion, he assumed that such natural 

 simulations would have been among the previous objects of worship of the people. 



On the Ethnography of the Chnhri. By the Eev. Canon Rawiinson, B.D. 



Note on the Animal Bemains found in Cisshury Camp. 

 By Professor Rolleston^, F.R.S. 



On the Applicaiility of Historical Evidence to Ethnographical Inquiries. 

 By Professor RoLLESioiir, F.B.S. 



On the Physiognomy of the Ear. By Dr. Simms. 



On the Origin of the Maori Races in New Zealand. 

 By AV. S. AV. Vaux, M.A., F.R.S. 



The author considered this question imder three heads : — 1. Native Tradition ; 

 2. Ethnology; 3. Language. 



In the first, he pointed out that there was no reasonable grounds for doubling 

 the native traditions, as these had been found uniformly the same in all parts of 

 the three islands, and, as in other matters, the people had proved themselves to 

 be thoroughly trustworthy. 



