180 PRINCIPAL SIR WILLIAM TURNER ON 



directed to the surface. Flint and smooth stone implements, rude urn-like pottery, 

 rounded at the bottom, with simple ornamentation, were obtained, but no trace 

 of bronze. Four skulls were procured at Torlin and Clachaig, which have been 

 described by Professor Bryce, also a fragment of a fifth (Table I). They ranged 

 in length from 186 to 201 mm. ; in breadth from 134 to 140 mm. ; in height from 

 132 to 136 mm. The cephalic index was from 66 - 6 to 75% the mean being 71*3; 

 the vertical index from 65*6 to 73*1, the mean being 68'1 metriocephalic ; the 

 breadth in each case was more than the height. In general form the crania were 

 long in relation to the width, dolichocephalic, parietooccipital slope moderate ; occi- 

 pital squama somewhat bulging ; glabella and supraciliaries moderate ; face high, 

 narrow ; jaw orthognathous ; nose narrow : orbits low in relation to their breadth. 

 The cubic capacity in two skulls was 1480 and 1560 respectively. Cairns enclosing 

 segmented megalithic interments were also examined by Bryce in Kintyre, Islay, 

 and by Greenwell and Mapleton, near Crinan, Argyllshire, but no skeletons were 

 obtained for description. 



Professor Bryce, from researches, in the island of Bute,* exposed chambered 

 cairns like those in Arran, which contained burnt and unburnt burials : the bones 

 of the latter were too fragmentary to be measured ; also broken pottery. One 

 chambered cairn had been built on the site of an older kitchen midding, whilst 

 in one a beaker urn of the bronze age was found. 



Another example of a chambered cairn at Kewing Hill in the parish of Firth + in 

 the Orkneys has been described by Mr M. Charleson. It had a central compartment 

 with five smaller cell-like chambers opening off it, as well as an entrance passage. 

 The walls were dry-built on the beehive principle. On the floor of the central 

 chamber was a deposit of an unctuous appearance, the skulls of dogs, jaws and teeth 

 of an ox, tibia of horse, bones of birds. Five human skulls with limb bones were 

 found in the compartment, also two skulls in the cells. In the entrance passage were 

 portions of human long bones which showed evidence of cremation. No industrial 

 relics were found in the chamber. 



The human remains sent to me consisted of portions of five skulls and three 

 thigh bones. They were from the condition of the sutures advanced in life, at least 

 three being males. I attempted reconstruction of the crania, but they were so much 

 broken that in only one could I obtain a numerical cephalic index. The calvaria 

 was 188 mm. long, breadth 142 mm., which gave 75'5 as the cephalic index; the 

 vertex was neither ridged nor highly arched, the post-parietal region was obliquely 

 flattened, the occipital squama was plano-convex, the forehead retreated a little, 

 the glabella and supraciliary ridges projected. The skull, though with a cephalic 

 index fractionally higher than the numerical limit, was essentially dolichocephalic. 

 Another calvaria without the occiput was elongated and narrow ; in a third the 

 parieto-occipital region was steep and the squama was faintly convex. 



* Pror. Soc, Anliij. Scot., vol. xxxviii, 1903, t Idem, vol. xxxvi, 1902 



