582 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



An analogous immigration of brachycephals has been proved for 

 Ancient Britain. It is generally supposed that this people introduced 

 bronze weapons and the " Celtic " language into our islands. 



Sir "William Wilde long ago pointed out (" Ethnology of the 

 Ancient Irish," 1844) that " among the true Irish of our time distinct 

 traces of the long-headed, dark-haired, black-visaged, swarthy 

 aborigines, or Gothic Firbolgs, and also (for they are very numerous) 

 the oval or globular-headed, faii'-haired, light-coloured, blue or grey- 

 eyed Celtse or Tuatha de Danaan. But the present Irish race is very 

 mixed. . . . Finally, we may add that there can now be little doubt 

 that the same early race [the long -headed] inhabited, long before the 

 date of written history, Ireland and Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, 

 and the north-west of Europe generally, together with the ancient 

 Etruria, and perhaps to central parts of Germany also ; at least one 

 or two specimens of ancient crania which we examined at Halle and 

 Berlin lead to these conclusions. "We have had an opportunity of 

 examining some skulls of the Guanches or ancient people of the 

 Canary Archipelago, found by M. Berthelot in TenerifPe, and they pre- 

 sented precisely similar characters." These conclusions were arrived 

 at by this acute observer solely by an inspection of the skulls, and the 

 only measurements since published on the Phoenix Park crania (which 

 formed the basis of Wilde's comparisons) are the very few in the 

 " Crania Britannica." Till now there has been no means of verifying 

 this hypothesis by means of modern craniological methods. Wilde 

 had not in his time the means of discriminating between the North 

 European dolichocephals (Teutonic or Eow- Grave type), and the South 

 European dolichocephals. 



Dr. Garson who is a well-known authority on the ancient ethnology 

 of the British Islands, says: — " Osteological remains of the Neolithic 

 people are distributed all over Britain, from the south of England to 

 the extreme north of Scotland. They are most numerous in the south- 

 west of England, especially in Wilts and Gloucestershire, the part of 

 the country occupied by the Drobuni, or Silures, at the beginning of 

 the historic period. They have been found in considerable numbers 

 in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Stafford. Huxley and Wilson have 

 described the same race from horned cairns in Caithness, and from 

 other places in Scotland. I have described them from Wiltshire, 

 Yorkshire, Middlesex, and from Orkney, 



There is some doubt of their having been found yet at an early 

 period in Ireland, as Professor Macalister informs me that he has not 

 recognised them in Ireland, where there are no long barrows. Sir 



