DISTORTIONS OF THE HUMAN CRANIUM. 433 



point of intellect and intelligence are perhaps above the average of the High- 

 landers and Islanders. 



" Some of the skulls did not present such strong individual character as those 

 sent, and were more equally developed. But, as I was limited in the number to 

 be taken, I preferred choosing well marked skulls, particularly as the general 

 character of the whole was so much the same." 



The author of this letter, at the time that it was written, was en- 

 gaged, as secretary of the lona Club, — a society formed for the pub- 

 lication of ancient Celtic literature, — in superintending a series of 

 researches and excavations in lona, under the authority of the Duke 

 of Argyle, the president of the Club, by means of which many of 

 the beautifully sculptured monuments of the ancient Christian 

 cemetery of Relig Oran were brought to light. He was at the same 

 time secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a zealous 

 archaeologist, foremost among the Celtic scholars of his day, and 

 equally zealous as a craniologist. It would be difficult indeed to 

 name another man whose authority was deserving of equal weight on 

 the points it is produced to substantiate. 



But Mr. Davis is obviously sensitive on the whole question of a pre- 

 Celtic hypothesis. He returns to its assault at every opportunity ; as 

 in his description of the Green Gate Hill crania, Dec. I., 34, (2) which, 

 though they " bear a striking general resemblance," yet " whilst the 

 one is of the brachycephalic form, the other approaches more to the 

 dolichocephalic character." Having accordingly defined their points 

 of difference, he thus proceeds : " These will go far to render ques- 

 tionable the opinion which has been assumed, that by ascending to 

 the earliest prehistoric times ws shall find the crania endowed with 

 uniformity, or as it were, stereotyped," — an idea not to be met with, 

 so far as I am aware, elsewhere. Again he reverts to the subject in 

 describing the Wetton Hill cranium, Dec. II., pi. 12, (4) ; those 

 of the Long Lowe barrow, Dec. IV., pi. 33, (6), &c. He has de- 

 molished the hypothesis, and all that relates to it as we have 

 already seen, when dealing, in his introduction, with the "Views 

 of previous observers," and might have been expected to reserve its 

 coup de grace to the conclusion, along with " other subjects to which 

 a review of the whole series of crania depicted is essential." But 

 the ghost of the discomfitted hypothesis haunts him in an un- 

 comfortable fashion, and apparently not without reason. I had not 

 intended to revert to this subject till all the valuable data and 

 tables of measurements of the Crania Britannica were completed, and 



