516 ME. E. T. NEWTON ON FOSSIL HITMAN KEMAJNS [Aug. 1 89 5, 



the Galley Hill skull is apparently more depressed than is this 

 Melanesian, but the height-index of the latter (-649) is less than 

 that calculated for the former (-674 ?). This seeming discrepancy 

 may in part be due to the natural flattening below of the occiput in 

 the Galley Hill skull, and in part to a too liberal allowance being 

 made in the endeavour to calculate the probable height without a 

 definite basal point. 



4. General Eemarks on the possible Affinities of the 

 Galley Hill Remains. 



Briefly stated, the more important characters of the Galley Hill 

 skull are its length and narrowness, for it is extremely dolicho- 

 cephalic, unusually parallel-sided, and much depressed. The small 

 extent, both in height and width, shows that there has been little or 

 no post-mortem compression, and only such changes as may be due to 

 shrinkage in drying since it was exhumed. The supraciliary ridges 

 are large, the forehead moderately receding. The temporal ridge 

 extends far up towards the top of the skull. The probole projects 

 far backwards. The underpart of the occiput is much flattened. 

 The last lower molar is as large as either of the two in front of it. 

 All the main sutures are closed and nearly obliterated. 



The closure of the sutures at once suggests the possibility of this 

 skull being scaphocephalic as a consequence of this closure ; there is 

 nothing, however, but the shape to support this idea. The individual 

 must have been middle-aged, for not only is the last molar in place, 

 but it is well worn ; and, for all we know, there may have been 

 no premature synostosis, but only such as appears to be commonly 

 met with among the Long Barrow race. In none of the skulls 

 mentioned in this paper is the lateral flattening so marked as in the 

 one here described, and among the ancient skulls hitherto known 

 it is only in the Long Barrow race that the breadth-index falls so 

 low as it does in the Galiey Hill skull. So few examples of the 

 Spy race are known that it may well be, when more are discovered, 

 that lower indices will be met with ; but this is hardly likely to be the 

 case with those races of which a good number have been measured. 

 In other particulars the Long Barrow skulls are less like our speci- 

 men, for the height-index is never so low, the forehead is better 

 developed, and there is no marked thickening of the supraciliary 

 ridges. 



The river-bed skull from Borris, Ireland, noticed by Prof. Huxley, 

 is the one which, in a side-view, comes nearest to that from Galley 

 Hill ; its supraciliary ridges are large, the entire skull is much 

 depressed, the probole is large, and there is a flattening of the 

 underpart of the occiput ; but, although this skull is dolichocephalic, 

 its breadth-index (73*7) is much higher than in the present skull 

 and agrees very nearly with that from the Neanderthal. 



The age of the Borris skull is uncertain, but is regarded by 

 Prof. Huxley as representing an extreme form of the most ancient 

 race whose remains have been met with in Ireland, and he identifies 



