582 PROFESSOR SIR WILLIAM TURNER ON 



and described by Professor Huxley.* They were from persons in the later stage of 

 adult life. 



Norma verticalis. — The crania were elongated o voids, with a tendency to be ridged 

 and roof-like in the sagittal region, and sloped distinctly downwards from the sagittal 

 suture to the parietal eminences ; they were flattened in the postero-parietal region, 

 and in two the side walls were vertical. In each skull the length-breadth index was 

 below 75 and therefore dolichocephalic ; the mean of the series was 73 '9. In each skull 

 also the basi-bregmatic diameter w T as below the greatest breadth. In two crania the 

 occipital longitudinal arc was greater than the frontal but less than the parietal ; in two 

 the parietal was greater than the frontal. In the Keiss skull the occipital squama 

 bulged backwards. 



The glabella and supraorbital ridges were not very prominent ; in the females the 

 forehead was almost vertical, in the male slightly retreating. The nasion was not de- 

 pressed, the bridge of the nose present in the Keiss cranium was sharp and aquiline, 

 and in it also the maxillo-nasal spine was long, and a distinct crest separated 

 the floor of the nose from the incisive region. In the male Knockstanger skull the 

 face was broken away, but in the other skulls the nasal index was leptorhine ; the 

 orbits were megaseme and the upper jaw was orthognathous. In the Keiss specimen 

 the face was leptoprosopic and the palato-alveolar arch was mesuranic, the angle of 

 the lower jaw was gently rounded, and the symphysis was somewhat pointed ; in the 

 other female skull the arch was brachyuranic. 



Shetland Islands. Table XIII. Plates III., IV., V. 



Five male skulls were collected in Shetland. Two were from a parish in the north- 

 west of the mainland, one from a parish in its southern part, and two from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Lerwick. They were from persons in the later stage of adult life. In one 

 the teeth were all shed and the alveoli absorbed, in two others many of the alveoli were 

 absorbed, and in the other two the crowns were worn and flattened. Two crania were 

 metopic, and in all the sutures of the vault were visible in the outer table. 



The norma verticalis was broadly ovoid, though in two specimens the relative breadth 

 was not so great as in the others. In three the vertex was low-arched from side to side ; 

 no sagittal ridge, and the slope outwards to the parietal eminences was gentle ; the side 

 walls were somewhat bulging. In one the occipital squama was convex, in the others it 



* See Laing and Huxley's Prehistoric Remains in Caithness (London, 1866), in which I gave a detailed description 

 of this skull. Several skulls from this Burial Mound are described by Professor Huxley : they varied in the cephalic 

 index from 70 to 78. The so-called mound was on the natural terrace of sand and shingle parallel and close to the 

 sea beach, and was scarcely elevated above the surface of the terrace. Stones were found in two of the graves which 

 Mr Laing regarded as rude stone implements, and he associated the burials with the early stone period. The bodies 

 had been buried in the extended position in long graves covered with fiat stones, whilst the walls were formed of 

 unhewn flagstones, a mode of burial which is known to have prevailed during the Christian era, and examples of 

 which are not uncommon on the sea shore. It is questionable if these burials had the antiquity which Mr Laing 

 has ascribed to them. See also Proc. Scottish Soc. Antiquaries, vol. vii. p. 38, 1870. 



