1905-6.] Human Skeleton , ivith Prehistoric Objects. 291 
well-filled dolichocephalic skull. To this conclusion there is 
only one alternative, viz. that the' race has gradually died out, 
on the principle of the extinction of the unfittest, having had to 
give way to the superior vitality of the long-headed race, who 
were much longer acclimatised to the country. 
The cephalic index is, however, only one of the factors which 
ethnologists make use of in their investigations. Stature, colour 
of hair and eyes, and even language, especially when fossilised 
in place-names, supply important evidential materials, not to 
mention the incidental references of classical authors to the 
proto-historic inhabitants of Europe. Now, as regards all these 
physical features, there is a sufficient diversity to be seen among 
the present inhabitants of this country to suggest a thorough 
blending of all the racial factors which has to be accounted for 
in discussing British ethnology. The effect of cross-breeding on 
the colour of the hair and eyes is difficult to be determined, as the 
child may sometimes strongly resemble the father and sometimes 
the mother, or sometimes neither, but may revert, on the principle 
of atavism, to the type of a more remote ancestor. That, however, 
a blend in pigmentation ultimately takes place in the course of 
many generations, and has taken place, is undoubted. Possibly 
the hazel and grey eyes, now so commonly met with, may be in- 
termediate shades between the dark Iberian and the blue-eyed later 
Celts, or Galli, or Belgians. It is a remarkable fact that the so- 
called “ Celtic fringe ” of to-day — i.e. the highland and more 
inaccessible regions in which the Celtic languages have survived 
longest — almost coincides with the scattered geographical areas 
where the dark Iberian people still form the majority of the 
population. Now, if the language of this dark, long-headed race 
was not Celtic, we have a striking instance of the instability of 
language as a racial character. Eor it would appear as if the 
descendants of this primitive race, within the historic period, had 
captured and appropriated the entire heritage of the renowned 
Celts of Europe as regards language, tradition, and civilisation ; 
while the modern representatives of the latter, so far as concerns 
Britain, are absolutely lost among, and undistinguishable from, 
the modern Teutons. 
Whatever may be the inherent value of these general remarks, 
