1905 — 6 .] Human Skeleton, ivith Prehistoric Objects. 287 
* long-barrow ’ and ‘ river-bed ’ elements of the population of 
England, and with the long-headed or * kumbecephalic ’ in- 
habitants of Scotland ; and to believe that the ‘ round-barrow ’ or 
Belgic element of the Britannic people never colonised Ireland in 
sufficient numbers to make its presence ethnically felt ” (Pre- 
historic Remains of Caithness , p. 127). The fact that the beaker 
type of sepulchral ceramic has very rarely, if at all, been found in 
Ireland, may be accounted for on the supposition that the 
Continental brachycephalic were later in entering that country, or 
perhaps that they found their way to it by a different route from 
those who entered Britain by way of the Rhine valley. Anyhow, 
the rarity of both the beaker and the brachycephalic skull in the 
prehistoric burials of Ireland is a remarkable coincidence, and 
supplies fresh evidence in support of the above exposition of Irish 
•ethnology by Professor Huxley. 
Without entering on further argumentative details, the following 
propositions may be accepted as a fair summary of the ethnic 
•elements, so far as these have been determined by modern research, 
which have helped to mould the physical characters of the highly 
mixed population now inhabiting the British Isles — but, of course, 
altogether apart from the influence of the environment, which, as 
a modifying influence on racial characters, may have been very 
potent. 
(1) Anthropological researches have shown that during the 
Neolithic Age a long-headed race, of short stature but strong 
physique (average height 5 feet 5 inches), and who buried their 
•dead in rudely constructed stone chambers, had spread over the 
whole of Western Europe, from the Mediterranean to the south of 
•Scandinavia. Tacitus informs us that he identified the Silures, a 
people then occupying South Wales, as Iberians, on account of 
their swarthy complexion and curled hair (Agricola, xi.). The 
inference that these Silures were the direct descendants of the 
primitive long-headed people was not unreasonable, more 
•especially as by that time the eastern parts of Britain had been 
taken possession of by successive waves of Gaulish and Belgic 
immigrants from the Continent — thus causing the earlier in 
habitants to recede more and more westwards. And if this be so, 
it follows that the long-headed man of the Chambered Cairns of 
