Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/181

Rh are still relatively short, with an average stature but an inch or so greater than the long-barrow men of the stone age. For England, then, the maps of brunetteness and of average stature agree remarkably well. Our portrait herewith represents this common Welsh type. In this case the hair was very deep brown, with dark eyes. The slender build and short stature are characteristic. Even the curious dark spot north of London, which we have already identified as an ancient British outcrop, appears clearly upon our map. It seems to be nearly severed from the western short populations by an intermediate and seemingly intrusive zone of taller men. As a rule, coast populations all over England are taller than inland ones. Even Ireland does not seriously embarrass our hypothesis of a primitive dark and short population. The eastern half, to be sure, is shorter than the western; but a variation of half an inch is not very much, and we know that the Irish are much more homogeneous than the English or Scotch in color of hair and eyes. The western half ought certainly to be shorter to fit our hypothesis exactly, but we might possibly ascribe this to chance, to an inadequate statistical basis, or some other cause.

Consideration of the distribution of stature in Scotland, however, is enough to reduce the consistent anthropologist to despair. The physical traits seem to cross one another at right angles. Inverness and Argyleshire, as brunette as any part of the British Isles, equaling even the Welsh in this respect, are relatively well toward the top in respect of stature. This is all the more remarkable since this mountainous and infertile region might normally be expected to exert a depressing influence. To class these Scotchmen, therefore, in the same Iberian or neolithic substratum with the Welsh and Irish is manifestly impossible. The counties south of them, where stature culminates for all Europe, are also fairly dark. Only two explanations seem possible. Either some ethnic element, of which no pure trace remains, served to increase the stature of the western Highlanders without at the same time conducing to blondness; or else some local influences of natural selection or environment are responsible for it. Men with black hair are indeed shorter in many places, but the averages shown on our map belie any general law in that direction. We have no time to discuss the phenomenon further in this place. As Dr. Beddoe acknowledges, the difficulty is certainly a grave one. At all events, a profound contrast in respect of stature between the two branches of the Celtic-speaking peoples is certain. The only comforting circumstance is that we thus find in language some indication of a very early division of the Gael from the Brython. On the whole, the Gaelic branch, the Irish and Scotch, seem to agree in stature, and to contrast alike with the