Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/149

135 the Danish name. and some of them may have been descendants of Baltic colonists of Danish origin.

It is difficult, therefore, to avoid the conclusion that the tendency to prognathism which certainly existed among some of the early Anglo-Saxons came into this country through people of a more or less mixed race from the Baltic coasts. The remarks of Beddoe on the Shetlanders are of interest in connection with this subject. He describes them ‘as probably the fairest people of the British Isles. Black hair, however, does occur, and not very unfrequently. It is usually found in persons of a decidedly Ugrian aspect and melancholic temperament. The same type may be found at Wick. These people may be relics of the Ugrian thralls of the Norse invaders, or possibly descendants of some primitive Ugrian tribe.’ Having in view the traces of Fins, which have been stated, the question may be asked, Is it not probable that there were settlements here and there of Fins among our Old English forefathers? They were an ancient maritime race, as they are at present. They were closely connected with Sweden, and were at one time partly located in it. Their country did not cease to be Swedish until about a century ago. The ancient nations of the Baltic were all in maritime communication. Their increasing populations must have made new settlements or emigration as much a necessity in ancient times as in modern. The fitting out of expeditions against the British coasts by the Angles and Goths of the earlier period, and the Danes of the later, must have been known all along the Baltic coasts. Would it not have been surprising if, amidst such maritime activity and pressure of population urging them on, some Fins, Helsings, and, other Swedes, had not joined in these expeditions?

The parallelism arises between the Anglo-Saxon settlement in England and the greater Anglo-Saxon settlement that has gone on, and is going on, in the United States. There was a settlement of Fins among the