Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/243

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BRITISH ETHNOLOGY
235

where it appears towards the close of the Glacial period."

In addition to the above list of the "riverbed race" I submit another specimen which clearly comes under the same category. This skull was extracted from a rock-fissure by quarrymen, at Great Casterton, in Rutland, and brought under public notice by Mr. Crowther-Beynon, Hon. Secretary of the Rutland Archæological and Natural History Society. Its osseous characters (cephalic index, 73⋅4) approach so nearly those of the Neanderthal-Spy type that for some time doubts were entertained as to whether or not it belonged to that race. This skull is figured in Vol. XXVI, p. 280, of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Could any widely distributed series of skulls be brought together which more effectually proves that these "river-bed" types belonged to the people of the Transition period? How otherwise is their presence to be accounted for? According to Dr. Keith, Palæolithic blood is as rife in the British people of to-day as in those of the European continent—a conclusion which entirely meets with the present writer's views.

Hitherto it was supposed that there was no archæological evidence in support of the theory that Britain was inhabited during the Transition period. The general idea was that the