Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/342

314 Neolithic age. They have left traces of their presence in numerous interments in chambered tombs and caves in Belgium and in France, as well as in Spain and in Gibraltar. We may therefore conclude that at one period in the Neolithic age the population of Europe, west of the Rhine and north of the Alps, was uniform in physique, and consisted of the same small people as the Neolithic inhabitants of Britain and Ireland.

The researches of Dr. Virchow also prove that skulls of the same type occur in the peat bogs of north Germany and of Denmark, beariug a closer resemblance to those of the Basques than to those of any other race.

The next point to be considered is their relation to the present inhabitants of Europe. Have they been exterminated in the struggles which have taken place during repeated invasions, or are they still represented in the present population? The labours of Thurnam, Busk, Virchow, Huxley, Wilson, and others, combined with the observations of Dr. Broca, offer most conclusive evidence that they are still to be numbered among the living races of Europe.

The numerous skulls obtained from Basque cemeteries possess exactly those characters which have been remarked above in the Neolithic tombs and caves in