Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/165

Rh in parts of Corsica. It is worthy of note also that a remarkable purity of type in this respect was manifested; positively no broad crania with indexes above 80 have ever been found. These long-barrow men were also rather undersized, about five feet five inches—that is to say, an inch shorter than any average prevailing to-day. The full significance of this important point will appear shortly. The evidence seems to bear out the conclusion that thus far we have to do with but one race type, which had, however, slowly acquired a low stage of culture by self-education.

This neolithic, or stone age, primitive type is still represented in the present population, according to the testimony of those best fitted to judge. Our portrait herewith of an ancient British type, locally known in the Shetland Isles as "the old black breed," because of its accentuated brunetteness, is probably a good specimen. The long head and dark complexion are said to-day to be more often associated with short stature than otherwise.

The next event in the prehistoric history of the British Isles—pardon the bull, it conveys our meaning—is of profound significance. Often directly superposed upon the relics of the long-barrow period, and in other ways indicating a succession to it in time, occur the remains of an entirely different racial type. This stratum represents the so-called round-barrow period, from the circumstance that the burial mounds are no longer ovoid or elongated in ground plan, but quite circular or bell-shaped. The culture is greatly superior to that of its predecessor. Pottery, well ornamented, occurs in abundance, and the metals are known. Bronze implements are very common, and even a few traces of iron appear. Now the dead are often buried in urns, showing that incineration must have been practiced. More remarkable than this advance in culture, and more directly concerning our present inquiry, the people were as broad-headed as the modern peasants of middle Trance. The cephalic index was fully ten points on the average above that of the long-barrow men, averaging about 83 in the life. The former type has not entirely disappeared, but it is in a decided minority. So persistent is the difference that Dr. Thurnam's well-known axiom, "long-barrow, long skull; round-barrow, round head," is accepted as an ethnic law. It is impossible to emphasize too strongly the radical change in human type which is hereby implied. The contrast is every whit as marked as that between a modern Alpine peasant and a south Italian or Scandinavian. The new population differed in still another important respect from the underlying one. This is known from scores of detailed measurements of skeletons. The average stature was fully three inches greater, rising five feet eight inches. The round-barrow population therefore attained a bodily