that the Laplander cranium should be regarded as a subtypical form, occupying the transitionary place between the pyramidal type of the true hyperboreans on the one hand, and the globular-headed and square-faced Mongol on the other. The Laplander is certainly of low stature, but he is not a pigmy, as he has been represented. The stature of the Esquimaux averages 5 feet 7 inches. In England the average for the men is 5 feet 6 inches, and in Patagonia 6 feet 2 inches; but we have no real measurement of the Lapps. The Laplander is very lean in flesh, and has not the fat and bulk of the Esquimaux. A thick head, prominent forehead, hollow and blear eyes, short flat nose and wide mouth, characterize the Laplander. The hair is thin, short, and shaggy; the beard straggling, and scarcely covering the chin, in which respect he assimilates with the Esquimaux. The hair of both sexes is black and harsh, the chest broad, and the waist slender. He is swift of foot and very strong; so that a bow which a Norwegian can scarcely half bend he will draw to the full, the arrow reaching to the head. Running races, climbing inaccessible rocks and high trees is the usual exercise. Though nimble and strong, he never walks quite upright, but always stooping, a habit obtained by frequently sitting in his hut on the ground. The Laplander was originally Pagan, full of superstition, and believing in magic and omens, and worshipping their chief deity Jumala in a kind of temple in thick remote woods not built with walls and roof, but only a piece of ground fenced as were the old Roman temples, until the planting of Christianity in the time of Ladulaus Magnus in the year 1277-a Christianity differing, however, from Paganism only in name, until the founding of a school by Gustavus Adolphus in 1631, to which the Laplanders owe their progress in the knowledge and love of the Christian religion, which appears from the many useful and eminent persons bred there. The author described at length their marriage ceremonies. They may be called a moral race. Polygamy and divorce are unknown. It is unlawful to marry too near in blood. The author stated that their families are small, rarely exceeding three. author then described their mode of bringing up young children from their earliest years. Wexionius is of opinion that the Swedes gave the "Lapp" their name from their wearing skins, but lapper and skin-lapper do not properly signify skins. Nieuren derives their name from their coming into Swedeland every year with rags lapt about them, which is the signification of Lapp in Greek.

The

According to some authors, the inhabitants do not denominate the country, but the country the inhabitants, as in the name Norwegian and others, strengthened by Olaus Magnus, who calls them Lappomanni, Westmanni, and Sudermanni, in which words manni signifying men, they were called Lappomanni, i.e. Men of Lappia. Others say that the name of the country is derived from Lappu, which in the Finnonick language is Furthermost, because it lies in the furthest part of Scandinavia. On this point Lehrberg agrees. Ibre derives it from Lop or Lapp, an old Swedish word for wizard or enchanter.

The domestication of the Reindeer and the use of a drum, which is elaborately engraved with birds, animals, and celestial bodies, and is practised incessantly for the purpose of foretelling events, characterize this people from most of the circumpolar family.

On Megalithic Circles. By Lieut.-Col. FORBES LESLIE.

This paper is intended in refutation of the theory that all megalithic circles were primarily and exclusively sepulchral; and, on the contrary, to show that the great circular monuments were erected or occupied for religious ceremonies by successive generations of the early races of Britain. Although it is not improbable that these ceremonies were connected with the funeral rites of the dead, whose barrows or cairns, sometimes surrounded by "standing stones," were raised around or within sight of the fane by which they were attracted.

The description of the great methalithic circles of England and Aberdeenshire, were illustrated by diagrams to show the peculiarities of construction which distinguish monuments designed for religious ceremonies from "standing stones" which defined or dignified a place of sepulture.

In proof that the same sites were occupied, and the same megalithic masses

were used by successive races or generations, it was shown, from the position of certain hieroglyphic figures of an ancient type on some members of the circles in Aberdeenshire, that they must have been overthrown, and reerected in their present form of megalithic circles.

The arguments in favour of the religious object in the great megalithic circles were included under the following seven heads:

:

1. They were not places of sepulture, but fanes, temples for heathen worship; for no sepulchral deposits which could rationally be connected with the origin of these monuments, had been found within these circles.

II. Not being sepulchral, a religious object may be inferred from the position of the principal group of monoliths being relative to a particular point of the

compass.

III. A peculiar type of sculptures, which are not sepulchral, found on members of these circles.

IV. The vast size of some of the circles and of the masses of stone of which they are formed.

V. Having stone avenues, causeways, or other permanent approaches.

VI. Being selected as places for worship by early Christians; and being often called churches, both in Gaelic and in the lowland Scotch dialect, although no Christian church ever occupied their sites.

VII. In India, stone circles and other megalithic monuments were anciently, and now are commonly erected as places of worship. This was emphatically asserted, on personal observation and the best authority, not as a doubtful argument, but as an undeniable fact, and that the practice existed not in one only, but in many districts, some of which were mentioned, as well as the authorities,

On Ancient Hieroglyphic Sculptures. By Lieut.-Col. FORBES LESLIE.

In this paper it is maintained that the hieroglyphics found graven on earth-fast rocks, boulders, and rude monoliths in Scotland, are symbols of religious ideas; the argument being confined to such figures as are graven in rude monoliths where no Christian symbol appears.

These hieroglyphics are referred to two distinct types, the most ancient of which appear to have been the works of a race that was superseded by the Celtic, to whom the later type of sculptures may confidently be assigned.

The ancient type is found in many parts of England and Ireland as well as in Scotland, which would lead to the conclusion that a homogeneous people occupied the three countries. This type of figures is found profusely scattered on rocks where sepulture was impossible, and no connexion with any sepulchral remains has

been traced.

The second type of sculptures, although certainly of heathen origin, is evidently of a later age. Many of them have been discovered, none, however, beyond the limits of those districts of Scotland which were occupied by the Celtic tribe of Picts.

In this paper the author, whilst maintaining the religious origin of the figures graven on rude monoliths, combats the theory which would assign their origin to a species of Pictish heraldry, and their use to have been as personal ornaments.

The Origin of the Moral Sense. By the Rev. J. McCANN, D.D.

Is the Stone Age of Lyell and Lubbock as yet at all proven?
By W. D. MICHELL.

On Bones and Flints found in the Caves at Mentone and in the adjacent Railway Cutting. By M. MoGGRIDGE.

The caves of the red rocks, half a mile east of Mentone, are in lofty rocks of Jurassic imestone on the shore of the Mediterranean, and at an average height

of 100 feet above that sea, the rocks themselves attaining an elevation of 200 feet. They have now been repeatedly rifled by the learned or the curious; but when the principal cave was nearly intact, the author made a section of it from the modern or highest floor down to the solid rock. There were five floors formed in the earth by long continued trampling; on each, and near the centre, were marks of fire, around which broken bones and flints were abundant, except upon the lowest, where but few bones occurred and no flints. The bones were those of animals still existing. Few implements were found, but many chips of flint, some cores, and stones used as hammers. Perhaps this cave was used as a place for manufacturing flints, which must have been carried from their native bed, distant about one mile. There is nothing to evince the action of water; on the contrary, the numerous stones that occur are all angular, derived apparently from the flaking off of portions of the rock, a slow process, and showing that long periods had elapsed between each of those five occupations, and thus evidencing the great antiquity of the present European fauna.

Whatever that antiquity may have been, we now come to still more ancient times.

Below these caves a slope of about 180 feet descends to the edge of the sea. Through the upper part of this slope, at distances from the caves of from 0 to 10 feet, is a railway-cutting 600 feet long, 54 feet deep, and 60 feet above the sea. The mass removed in making this cutting was composed of angular stones, not waterworn. Loose at the surface, it soon became a more or less mature breccia (specimens were produced), for the most part so hard that it was blasted with gunpowder. In this breccia, and at various depths, some of more than 30 feet, the author has taken out teeth of the Bear (Ursus spelaus) and of the Hyæna (Hyana. spelaa), while with and below those teeth he found flints worked by man (specimens of teeth and of flints were produced).

Bones and teeth of other animals also occur, for the naming of which the author is indebted to the kindness of Mr. Busk, who says that they are almost identical with those found in the Gibraltar caves.

At the eastern end of the cutting described the railroad passes through a tunnel, emerging close to the sea, and near to what is known as the Roman bridge. Here in sinking for the foundation of a sea-wall, bones and teeth were discovered, but not under such satisfactory conditions as at the western side of the tunnel, since the stones were loose and some of them rounded.

Still following the line of the railway to the east, at half a mile a deep cutting occurs through stiff clay, the result of the washing down of the hill-side. In this, at a depth of 65 feet, the author took out the frontal bone and part of the antlers of a large stag (produced). They were perfect, but in such a state that he could save only the parts.

A few feet off, and on the same horizon, were these teeth of Ursus spelaus, marvellously well preserved when we consider the time that must have been required for the accumulation of 65 feet of solid ground; and that not in a hollow or a river's bed, but on the gently sloping side of a hill.

The author suggested that the section of the cave evidences the great antiquity of the present European fauna, while the teeth of the Cave Bear and Hyæna found with worked flints some 30 feet deep in solid breccia, add to the proofs hitherto adduced that those beasts were really contemporary with man.

Note on a Cross traced upon a Hill at Cringletie, near Peebles.
By J. WOLFE MURRAY.

On Ancient Modes of Sepulture in the Orkneys. By GEORGE PETRIE. The author stated that sepulchral mounds are very numerous in the Orkneys. Generally they occupy elevated situations which command a view of the sea, or of a lake, or of both, where the latter was attainable. They stand singly or in groups, or are arranged in a straight line. Occasionally they appear as twin barrows.

They differ greatly in size, and there is also much diversity in their internal arrangements. In some of the barrows (which, with rare exceptions, are of the bowlshape) human skeletons have been found in kists, either lying extended at full length, or on the right or left side in a flexed posture: in one case the skeleton was in a sitting posture. It is not uncommon to find interments both by inhumation and cremation in the same barrow, and even in the same kist.

Graves or kists unconnected with barrows are not unfrequently met with, but they are only accidentally discovered. If barrows formerly existed over any of them, they have long since disappeared.

Some of the largest barrows contained only a small quantity of fragments of burnt bones, or ashes lying about the centre of the barrow, either on a flat stone, or imbedded in a greasy-looking clay. In others the burnt bones and ashes lay on the natural surface of the soil beneath a small cairn of stones, over which clay had been heaped to complete the mound. A third class contained one or more kists, usually of flagstone set on edge, either wholly undressed, or more or less rudely fitted together. The kists, which average about 2 feet in length and 1 foot in width and depth, are found to contain either burnt bones or ashes, or cinerary urns of stone or fire-baked clay, in which the bones or ashes have been deposited. Few stone or bronze weapons are found in the barrows or kists, and personal ornaments are still more rarely met with. The urns are usually very rude.

Two human skeletons were found near Kirkwall in a stone kist underneath a barrow; both were in the flexed posture. One was on its right side with its head close to one end of the kist, and the other lay on its left side at the opposite end. The skull of the first-mentioned skeleton has been described by Dr. J. Barnard Davis as presenting all the characteristic features of the Ancient Briton; the other skull was of a greatly inferior type, more square in outline and remarkably thick. A large kist was discovered in another locality in Orkney, also containing two human skeletons lying similarly to those already described, and presenting the same characteristic differences. In each case the skeleton of lowest type appeared to have been rudely treated and recklessly thrust into the kist, while great care had evidently been taken with the other skeleton found beside it. The whole appearance of the skeletons and their arrangement in the kists suggested the question, Were the squat skeletons with the short thick skulls those of slaves or captives who had been slain and placed beside their masters? and have we in them discovered traces of an aboriginal race of colonists of the Orkneys, akin to the Fins or Esquimaux, whose snow houses the so-called Picts'-houses so closely resemble in form and structure, making due allowance for the difference between the materials employed in their construction?

There is another class of tumuli in Orkney known as "Picts'-houses." They usually resemble the Bowl-barrows externally, but when examined the so-called "Pict's-house" is found to be a mass of building, generally circular at the base, containing in its centre several small chambers or cells surrounding a larger chamber. Each cell is connected by a low short passage with the central chamber, and from the latter a passage extends to the outside of the structure, which is circumscribed by a low wall or facing, generally about 2 feet in height. The walls of each chamber converge till at the top or roof they are only a foot or two apart, and the opening is covered in by flagstones placed across it. Occasionally human skeletons have been found in such buildings; but most archeologists were of opinion that the Picts'-houses were not sepulchral. The opening of Maes-how in Stenness, and especially of a chambered mound in its neighbourhood, showed, however that they had been used as tombs, as Mr. Petrie had supposed. A subsequent discovery of a "Pict's-house" within the ruins of a "Brough," or Round Tower, containing human skeletons along with bones of the Ox, Sheep, &c., and two rude stone implements of peculiar form, afforded still more conclusive evidence of the sepulchral character of the "Picts'-houses," and proved beyond a doubt that, even if originally erected as dwellings, they had subsequently been used as chambered tombs. It would be premature at present, Mr. Petrie observed, to attempt to determine the age of the "Picts'-houses," but the "Broughs," with which they appear to be intimately connected, were undoubtedly existing merely as ruined buildings, and in many instances presenting externally only the appearance of huge barrows, when

the Norsemen invaded the islands in the ninth century. The last class received from the Norsemen the name of "Hoi," or gravemound (now called "Howe"), and the former, in which the structures were still visible, were known as "Bjorgs ("Broughs"). So far as has yet been ascertained, the discovery of iron implements has been limited to the ruins known as "Broughs," which appear to have been known to, and in some cases occupied by, the Norsemen. The mounds which bear the name of "Howe," and have, when opened, been found to conceal the remains of "Broughs," have yielded only stone, bone, and a few bronze relics. Mr. Petrie referred to one of those mounds near Kirkwall, in which he lately found Roman silver coins of the Emperors Vespasian, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.

Details were given of various barrows and kists and of their contents, and the descriptions were illustrated by diagrams.

On an Expedition for the Special Investigation of the Hebrides and West Highlands, in search of Evidences of Ancient Serpent-Worship. By JOHN S. PHENÉ, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., Member of the British Archaeological Association.

The author commenced by stating that he felt bound to give the grounds for his assertion, made at the last Meeting of the British Association at Liverpool, that he had met with evidences of serpent-mounds and constructions identical with

those of Ohio and Wisconsin.

Impressed with the idea that if serpent-worship had been a feature in the early religion of these lands some evidences must still remain, he organized a party for searching such localities in the Hebrides and West Highlands as had not been examined with that object, nor had come under the attention of the theorists for serpent-worship, such as Dr. Stukeley and Sir R. C. Hoare; the party was unbiassed, and former theories strictly avoided. It became purely a matter of survey of existing relics that was undertaken.

The paper was very fully illustrated by diagrams, and the author first drew attention to one representing three outlines of animal forms, two being earthen mounds, taken from the elaborate surveys in Wisconsin by J. A. Lapham, Esq., and the third the stone foundation of a "bo'h" in South Uist, in a work by Capt. F. L. W. Thomas, R.N. Though the purposes and materials were different, the designs clearly demonstrated the fact that the early inhabitants of Britain and America made constructions in the forms of animals. From this he proceeded to the earliest pottery, and by his diagrams showed the great similarity between that of the earliest British and American, from a sepulchral urn in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and one taken from a mound at Racine, on Lake Michigan, by Dr. P. R. Hoy, with a similar specimen obtained from Berigonium, and which was on the table. Instances also of cremative burial, and of whole skeletons in the sitting posture, in both countries, clearly indicated a unity of custom. Having, he thought, established these points, he proceeded to trace the course of serpentworship from the east; he related some of his own experiences of that worship in India, followed it through Egypt to Greece, pointing out that some of the myths covered its struggles with the more intellectual religion of that country, as the destruction of the Python by Apollo, the strangling of serpents by Hercules, and the relapse of Laocoon and his two sons into the grosser rites, and their consequent punishment. Having traced the spread of this worship and its course westward, he next drew special attention to the construction of earthen mounds and tumuli in America and Britain: he quoted from Messrs. Lapham and Squier's surveys, that natural mounds were adapted artificially to peculiar purposes; at Lapham's Peak three artificial mounds were found, of stone and earth, on the lofty summit; the material had been conveyed by great labour; the hill on which the "Great Serpent Mound" of Mr. Squier is placed had been "cut out, evidently to adapt it to the form desired to be constructed." In the Annals of Cambridge' a tumulus in the Gogmagog Hills was formed by layers of different soils, each totally unlike the soil of the neighbourhood, and brought by great labour from remote distances. The Castle Hill at Cambridge is a British tumulus raised on a preexisting natural