ETHNOLOGY AND AECH.EOLOGY. 485 



Green-Gate-Hill Barrow, near Pickering. The following abstract of this communi- 

 cation is made from a copy transmitted by Mr. Davis to the Editor, and some 

 portions of it will not be without value in relation to our own Canadian ethnologi- 

 cal investigations and deductions. An observant eye, he remarks, is able to dis- 

 criminate between natives of the different provinces of the same country, there- 

 fore a more comprehensive investigation of the bones of the face and head will 

 lead to reliable conclusions respecting their specific forms. By extended observa- 

 tion, by keeping close to the teachings of the physical phenomena, and by re- 

 garding the information to be derived from history, philology and antiquities, more 

 as illustrative and accessory, we may hope to obtain more definite and conclusive 

 knowledge. In explanation of the uncertainty in which the subject is at present 

 involved, he remarks: — 1. Data have been inadequate, and from this scarcity of 

 authentic data, observations have deen disconnected and immature. 2. Study has 

 been too mxich separated from that of human skulls in general. Taken up more as 

 an antiquarian than anatomical or ethnological inquiry. 3. Little attention has been 

 paid to discrimination of sexes and ages. Some archaeologists of great learning 

 have entirely passed these over, yet the cranium undergoes important modifications 

 in the course of development and growth, not ceasing even in old age. These 

 changes render it necessary to select examples from the middle and mature season 

 of life. Attention to sex is even of greater moment, as, if disregarded, errors may 

 be induced extending to an entire class. The skulls of women seldom exhibit the 

 normal and characteristic ethnic features markedly, and should be employed 

 sparingly. 4. A prolific source of error consists in overlooking the great diversities 

 of form which present themselves regularly in every family of the European races, 

 and assuming that we shall fiDd the cranial character more stereotyped as we as- 

 cend to primitive times. This assumption has probably led men of great distinc- 

 tion, upon slender evidence for the difference of antiquity of certain skulls, to re- 

 fer them to a succession of races. 5. More definite views that prevail on primaeval 

 antiquities have dissipated certain preconceptions concerning cromlechs and 

 kistvaens, and the rites to which they were destined ; have proved that cremation 

 and inhumation were practised contemporaneously from the earliest periods; and 

 that the doctrine of the ages of Stone, Bronze and Iron, if notrec ived too exactly 

 and employed too readily in solving difficult problems, is in the main true. Pro- 

 bably until these advances had been made in archaeology, the study of ancient 

 crania could not have been profitably undertaken. 



From these impediments it must not be inferred there are no fixed principles in 

 the investigation. For, — 1. Although it must be admitted there is considerable 

 diversity of form amongst the crania of even one people, extensive observation en- 

 ables us to perceive tfte general characteristic marks which appertain to them. 2. 

 Whether the origin of the human race is regarded as one of the arcana of nature 

 enshrouded in primajval obscurity, wholly impenetrable, or not, we are constrained 

 to admit that marked dissimiliaritics have existed from the most remote periods. 

 3. Another, equally essential, is the law of permanence of ethnic forms ; that the 

 characters impressed upon races arc not transmutable, but constant. This law has 

 been the subject of much controversy, but the facts adduced against it appear too 

 dubious, unimportant, and few, to shake its stability ; a stability uniform with that 

 observed in all the other divisions of nature, and not to be successfully assailed by 

 the hypothesis of development. 



The best course to be puruued in the study of the ancient British 6kull is to de- 



