158 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



North American Indians. In fact, all heads vary as we depart from 

 the ethnological poles. 



A line drawn from the British Isles, through Europe and West- 

 ern Asia to Hindostan, represents the Ethnological Equator, along 

 which the skulls are found to be oval. 



The question arises whether the same varieties of the human race 

 have always inhabited the regions of the earth in which they are now 

 found. In Asia, in Africa, all remains that are found are of races 

 similar to those now dwelling in the countries. In North America, 

 in the valley of the Mississippi, are found, however, the remains of 

 a race entirely different from those who now live there — a race 

 whose remains are the great earthworks found in that region. 



When we come to Europe, however, we find, first of all, everywhere 

 the remains of the great Roman people'. In northern Europe we 

 find the remains of a long-headed people, acquainted with the use cf 

 iron ; the ancestors of the present Germanic races. These, however, 

 were preceded by a race smaller of stature, long-headed, like the 

 Hindoos, unacquainted with the working of iron — workers in bronze 

 —and traces of them are found all over Europe. 



But behind these, and earlier than these, come the remains of an 

 earlier race still — a ruder race — who possessed weapons of stone 

 ground to an edge. These were a rounder-headed people — the 

 transverse measurement of the skull was eight-tenths of the longi- 

 tudinal — but the forehead was flat, the supra-orbital ridges were 

 extremely prominent, and the jaws were prominent, though not 

 decidedly prognathous. 



At what distance from' our epoch was this Stone Period ? It is 

 impossible to state in years. In Denmark, there are vast peat-bogs. 

 In the upper layer of these are found beech trees, the trees which 

 which now form the forests of Denmark ; and in these bogs are found 

 the remains of the iron age. Deeper than these is a layer of peat, 

 in which are imbedded oaks of enormous size — oaks, whose cir- 

 cumference speaks of centuries of growth. With the oak trees are 

 found the implements of bronze. 



Deeper yet, is another stratum, in which are found pines, 

 which show by their long stems that they have grown up in dense 

 forests, into which the light could hardly penetrate ; and at the 

 very bottom of these pine bogs are found the stone weapons ; under 

 them, again, is found peat, in which are found no weapons of any 

 kind, or any remains of man. 



It is not possible to make any calculation of the years that have 

 elapsed between the stone period and the present day — the conside- 

 ration of the immense length of time which must have been occupied 

 in the formation of these bogs can alone furnish us with any idea 

 on the subject. But before even these bogs were formed, there was 

 a time when the physical features of the couni ry were totally different 

 from what they now are, when the urus and bos primigeuius, the 

 fossil elephant, hya3na, and cave bear roared over the land. The 

 question has arisen, was man contemporaneous with these animals? 

 The recent numerous discoveries of stone weapons, chipped to an 

 edge, and fossil bones acted upon by instruments, tends to the con- 



