of certain Ancient British Skull Forms. 55 
mother of prehistoric times, by the skull-forms found in 
ancient barrows, is replete with interest, from the sugges- 
tions it furnishes of ancient customs hitherto undreamt of. 
But it has also another and higher value to the craniologist, 
from its thus showing that some, at least, of the peculiar 
forms hitherto accepted as ethnical distinctions, may be 
more correctly traced to causes operating after birth. 
The first example of this peculiar cranial conformation 
which attracted my attention, as possibly traceable to other 
causes than the inherited characteristics, or natural devia- 
tions from the typical skull-form of an extinct race, occurred 
on the opening of a stone cist at Juniper Green, near Edin- 
burgh, on the 17th of May 1851. Soon after the publica- 
tion of the “ Prehistoric Annals of Scotland,” in which the 
special characteristics of the crania of the Scottish tumuli 
were first discussed, I heard of the accidental discovery of 
an ancient tomb in a garden on the Lanark road, a few miles 
to the north-west of Edinburgh, and immediately proceeded 
to the spot. The cist occupied a slightly elevated site, 
distant only a few yards from the road ; and as this had long 
been under cultivation as a garden, if any mound originally 
marked the spot it had disappeared, and no external indi- 
cation distinguished it as a place of sepulture. A shallow 
cist formed of unhewn slabs of sandstone enclosed a space 
measuring three feet eleven inches in length, by two feet 
one inch in breadth at the head, and one foot eleven inches 
at foot. The joints fitted to each other with sufficient regu- 
larity to admit of their being closed by a few stone chips 
inserted at the junction, after which they appeared to have 
been carefully cemented with wet loam or clay. The slab 
which covered the whole projected over the sides, so as 
effectually to protect the sepulchral chamber from any infil- 
tration of earth. It lay in a sandy soil, within little more 
than two feet of the surface; but it had probably been 
covered until a comparatively recent period by a greater 
depth of earth, as its site was higher than the surround- 
ing surface, and possibly thus marked the traces of the 
nearly levelled tumulus. Slight as this elevation was it 
had proved sufficient to prevent the lodgment of water, and 
hence the cist was found perfectly free from damp. With- 
