Mongol Tartar with the modified European Turk; and except among the nobles or murses, and partially among the population of the northern valleys, they abundantly indicate their Tartar origin in their features.

The antipathies which the mutual wrongs of Russian and Turk have created, have obliterated in the minds of the latter any idea of kindred with the Tartar or semi-Turkish population of the Crimea; and after the sack and pillage of the town of Kertch, the Turkish troops carried their violence so far as to open and spoil the graves in the Christian cemeteries; and on finding trinkets and relics in some of the first they opened, a general desecration ensued. The articles found consisted of rings, beads, and amulets, and also of crucifixes, and images of the saints; and these were sought for, and appropriated by the Turkish soldiers, with the utmost indifference to the condition in which they left the ravished occupants of the desecrated graves. While strolling in the neighbourhood of the city where such shameful spoliation had been carried on, Dr Turner passed through a large cemetery, which he was led to believe had been confined exclusively to members of the Greek Church, from the number of large marble crosses heading the graves. Most of the latter were opened, and rifled of such of their contents as could tempt the cupidity of the spoilers; and the skeletons and partially desiccated remains of their former occupants lay strewed about the ground. On looking into one of the open graves which had been thus despoiled, he was tempted to examine the nature of the sepulture, as the body still remained in its original position; and also to ascertain whether the marauders had left anything of value behind. He accordingly jumped into the grave, and turning over the loose soil with his hands, he was struck, on uncovering the head, by its long black hair and beautiful teeth. The body was not yet returned to the dust, so that the interment was one of no very remote date from that of the disturbance of what cannot properly, under such circumstances, be called its last resting-place. The muscles, which still remained on the forehead, were dry and contracted; and across the forehead, and round the head, was a broad gold fillet, sufficiently indicating that the grave was

tenanted by one who had occupied a high social rank. No other ornaments or relics were observed, the whole of these having doubtless been removed by the original riflers of the grave. Dr Turner did not consider it a very serious aggravation of the desecration to which the dead had already been subjected, to possess himself of the skull, which struck him as one peculiarly marked with indications of former delicacy and beauty; and through the kind intervention of my friend Dr C. W. Covernton, it has since been transferred to me.

From a comparison with other skulls procured by him, Dr Turner at first inclined to the opinion that he had acquired the cranium of a Greek lady. The breadth at the parietal protuberances, however, along with other marked features, differ essentially from the Greek type of head; and as there were many Circassians among the wives of the most influential and affluent families in the city, the probabilities, he conceives, are, a priori, in favour of its being ascribed to a people celebrated for the beauty of its females, and for their frequent introduction both to Turkish and Græco-Russian households around the Euxine. An elaborately sculptured, but broken marble cross, at the head of the grave, added additional proof that the once loved and lost beauty of some Kertch household, whose remains were subjected to such indignities, had been ranked during her lifetime among the finest porcelain of human clay. Under the peculiar system which prevails in oriental households, however, and by which Christian as well as Ottoman alliances are influenced, a wide area is embraced within the possible origin of the beauties who adorn such Eastern homes; and a comparison of the most strikingly marked characteristics of this head with the varying types of cranium pertaining to what may be regarded, even in some respects philologically, as the European ethnic area, would rather suggest its classification among Armenian than Circassian forms. The materials, however, for arriving at any very definite conclusion are limited, and perhaps inadequate for positive generalisations; and it may suffice to put on record such minute descriptions and measurements as may afford the means of future comparison.

The skull, as already indicated, is that of a female, of fully

thirty years of age. The bones of the face are characterised by great delicacy. The zygomata are slight, and enclose a space proportionally small by the zygomatic arch. The face is altogether small for the head, giving the idea of a considerable breadth of forehead, though it will be seen that the parietal diameter is in greater excess than usual when compared with the frontal diameter. The teeth, the beauty and completeness of which attracted the attention of Dr Turner when first exposed in the cemetery at Kertch, have since mostly fallen out; but with the exception of one decayed molar, such as remain fully accord with his description, and with the delicacy of the superior and inferior maxillaries. The forehead is smooth, with no projection of the frontal sinuses, and no depression above the nasal suture, but with marked frontal protuberances at the upper angles of the forehead. The occipital protuberance is slight, and the profile of the calvaria exhibits a markedly vertical aspect, both in its frontal and occipital outlines. The frontal bone passes somewhat abruptly from the forehead to the top of the skull, thereby giving a square form to the profile, instead of the more usual arched curvature; so that, with the nearly vertical occiput, the cranium has a singularly compact outline when viewed in profile. The parietal bones are large, with a gradually increasing protuberance to their greatest diameter, a little behind the line of the mastoid processes. Owing to this, the outline of the vertical aspect presents somewhat the form of a truncated wedge, narrowing gradually, and with a nearly uniform diminution, until abruptly rounded off into the forehead at the frontal protuberances.

The following are the most characteristic measurements of this skull:

:

Dr J. Aitken Meigs has remarked, in his "Cranial Characteristics of the Races of Men," chiefly founded on data supplied by the Morton Collection in the Academy of Sciences at Philadelphia: "The extreme south-eastern section of the European ethnic area, occupying mainly the table-land of Iran, is represented in the Morton Collection by six Armenian, two Persian, and one Affghan skull. A general family resemblance pervades all these crania. They are all, with one exception, remarkable for the smallness of the face, and shortness of head. In the Armenian skull, the forehead is narrow and well formed, the convexity extending upwards and backwards towards the parietal protuberances, and laterally towards the temporal bones. The greatest transverse diameter is between the parietal bones. This feature, combined with the flatness of the occiput, gives to the coronal region an outline resembling a triangle with all three angles truncated, and the base of the triangle looking posteriorly. In fact, the whole form of the calvaria is such as to impress the mind of the observer with a sense of squareness and angularity. The dimensions of the orbits are moderate; the malar bones small, flat, and retreating; zygomatic processes slender; and the general expression of the face resembling that of the Circassians, from which latter it differs in being shorter." On nearly all those points, the Kertch skull closely corresponds to this description of Armenian cranial characteristics. The only noticeable exceptions are in the orbits, which may be described as somewhat large, but with their perpendicular diameter the greatest; and in the length of the face, which has more of the assigned Circassian dimensions. The formation of the lower jaw indicates a delicately pointed and small chin. Viewed altogether, the peculiar features of this skull are well defined, and sufficiently characteristic to enable an experienced craniologist to assign it, with little hesitation, to the Iranian. group, with its included Georgians, Lesgians, Circassians, and Armenians. Of those the last named-to which the Kertch cranium seems by its most prominent peculiarities to belongpossesses some characteristics of peculiar interest. In his "Varieties of Man," Dr Latham places the Armenians foremost among his "unplaced stocks;" but regarding them from

a philological point of view, he seems to consider them as in some respects presenting indications of a link between the Indo-European and the Semitic groups. But he also adds: "It is through the Armenian that the transition from the Mongolide to the Atlantida is most likely to be recognised." Obtained as the skull now described has been, under peculiar and somewhat unique circumstances, and with a minuteness of evidence relative to the social condition and the vital characteristics originally pertaining to her whose sepulture was involved in the ravages of the Crimean war, which led to its acquisition, the facts recorded in this paper may possess some slight value as a contribution to data now accumulating from the labours of many independent workers, and destined ultimately to establish physical ethnology on a sure and welldetermined basis.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Archaia; or, Studies of the Cosmogony and Natural History of the Hebrew Scriptures. By J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.G.S., Principal of M'Gill College, Montreal. 8vo., pp. 400.

1860.

At the present time, when there is a tendency among men of science to ignore the testimony of Scripture-when, in a volume of Essays and Reviews which has been recently published, there is an attempt to annihilate the authority of the Bible as the inspired Word of God, to reject all miracles as incapable of proof and repugnant to reason, and even to undermine our faith in God as the Creator-it is pleasing to find a man like Principal Dawson, of high geological reputation, coming forth to vindicate the inspiration of the Bible, and to show the accordance between its statements and the facts of modern science. It is not for us to enter upon the question of Bible theopneustia; that has been ably proved by others. Our desire is to show that there is no discrepancy between science and religion. The Word of God and the works of God are in perfect harmony. God is the author of both; and, when we regard their common origin, we may rest assured that they will never be in opposition. We have no fear of true science. It has always done its duty well. It is science falsely so called