f i
52 CEANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. V.
its eai-liest inhabitants*. Professor Owen leaves it in doubt whether the considerable change of
level indicated in these cases, is to be explained by the existence of " an estuary that has been
filled up by deposits of the present sea, or the bottom of which has been upheaved t . "
Geologists and paleontologists ai-e not yet agreed whether there is satisfactory proof that
the Gigantic Deer or " Irish Elk" {Cervus megaceros) co-existed with man in the British Isles.
Professor Owen questions the evidence adduced on this head, which was, however, thought
satisfactory by Dr. Mantell and others t- Fm-ther investigation may determine tliis point.
However this may have been, there can be no doubt that immense herds of large wild cattle and
Deer ranged through the country, and that Bears, Wolves, and lesser animals of prey, now
happily extii-pated, existed in great numbers. Many of these animals ceased to exist subsequent
to the proper historical period; such as the small Ox, the _Bos longifrons, which certainly Hved
down to Roman, and, possibly, Anglo-Saxon times §. The great WUd Ox {Bos primigenius),
the skulls and horns of which have been found in barrows, and the descendants of which are
stin preserved in a few parks in the North of England, seems to have have been early extii-pated,
or reduced to a domesticated state. The same appHes to the old breed of small Horses indigenous
to Britain, and to the Wild Boar. The Beaver, so valued for its fur, had become extinct, except
in one river in Wales and another in Scotland, by the twelfth century. The Bear, once common
in England, Dr. Fleming tells us, only perished as a native of Scotland in the year 1057; whilst
the Wolf, though extirpated in England at a much earlier period, is said to have maintained its
groimd in North Britain till the close of the seventeenth, and in Ireland so late as the beginning
of the eighteenth century ||. The Welsh tradition, preserved in the First Triad, may be true
enough, that when the first of the Cymri arrived in Britain, they found no men, " nor anything
else but Bears, Wolves, Beavers, and the Oxen with the high prominence."
2. EARLIEST INHABITANTS-WHETHER TURANIAN OR ARIAN, IBERIAN OR CELTIC.
The land of Britain is only visible from the coast of the continent at the Straits of Dover;
and if, as is most likely, it received its earUest human pop^ilation at a later period than the
western parts of the continent, it is cleai-ly probable that man first reached oui- shores at this
point. The coracles, those flimsy vessels which the earliest historians describe as used in the
British seas, probably afforded the means of transit. We know at least, from Strabo, that
among the Bastetani of Spain, the coracle preceded the canoe formed out of the single trunk of a
treelf. The probable inference clearly being, that the earUest inhabitants of Britain arrived from
the north-east coast of Gaul, we further conclude that they were of the same stock as the
population of that country. That this was so in the time of JuHus CiEsar, as regards the inhabitants
of the maritime states of the south-east of Britain, we know, from the express testimony
of Caesar himself. There seems reason to believe that the older population of the interior and
* Wilson, "Prehistoric Annals of Scotland," p. 33. Compare
" Attenseum," August 24, 1850, p. 907.
t "British Fossil Mammals," 1846, p. 542.
J Owen, loc. cit. p. 462. Mantell, loc. àt. p. 343.
§ Archaeological Journal, vol. vi. p. 35 et seq. vol. x. p. 223.
II Fleming, Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1824, No. 22,
p. 287. Lyell, "Principles," p. 683.
1] Strabo, Ub. iii. c. 3. § 7.
CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN. 53
north of the island had a similar origin, though by the lapse of time this had been forgotten,
and they themselves claimed to be regarded as mitocMhones^.
It is, however, to be admitted as by no means impossible that streams of population had
penetrated to Britain at other points besides the Cantian promontory, and that such may have
consisted, in part at least, of tribes not of Celtic origin. Sir Charles LyeU has coHected a great
number of instances in the Paciac and Southern Oceans, of canoes with those in them being
accidentally drifted many hundi-ed miles, by means of tides and currents, to countries whence
there was no means of retm-n; on which this author remarks, " that man, in a rude state of
society, is Kable to be scattered involuntarily by the winds and waves over the globe, in a
manner singularly analogous to that in which many plants and animals are diffusedf." There
is therefore no diflloulty in allowing that, in pre-Mstoric times, the northern and eastern shores
of Britain may have been reached across the German Ocean, from the Danish or Frisian coasts,
or fr-om the Scandinavian peninsula; or that, in a similar manner, the southern and western
pai-ts of both Britain and Ireland may have received immigrants from Spain or the western part of
Gaul. These considerations, taken in connexion with the great extent of the British Islands, are
suflcient to induce much hesitation in admitting the purely homogeneous and Celtic character of
the whole of their early population. This is the more obvious when we find that so good an
authority as Tacitus points out a remarkable distinction in the physical characteristics, " Jiahitus
corportmi mrii," of the inhabitants of different parts of Britain. He alludes, in this well-known
passage, to the red haii- and taU statm-e, " rutil(B comm, magni artus," of the inhabitants of
Caledonia; the dark complexion and curly haii', " colorati vuUtts, et torti plerumque crines," of
the Silm-es ; and the similarity of appeai-ance, "proximii GctlUs et similes sunt," of the southern
Britons to their neighbours in Gaul. The inferences which Tacitus pointed out as sometimes
drawn fr-om the facts he narrates, " atque ex eo argumenta," are, 1. a Germanic origin for the
Caledonian or Northern Britons; 2. an Iberian origin for the Silures, " Iberos veteres trajecisse
easque sedes occii.pdsseX," and 3. a probably GaUic origin for the Southern Britons. The facts as
to the differences in the physical characteristics of the inhabitants of different parts of the island
given us by Tacitus are. Dr. Latham observes, " undoubted. At the present moment the inhabitants
of South Wales have florid complexions and dark hair§, whilst the Scotch Highlanders,
though of uncertain and irregular stature, are on the whole red, or at least, sandy-haired. The
* " BritanniEe pars interior ab iis incolitur, quos nates in
insula ipsa memoria proditum dicunt."—Ceesar, B. G. lib. v.
c. 12. Diodorus Siculus, a nearly contemporary writer, also
asserts (lib. v. c. 21) the prevalent opinion that the Britons
were autochthones. Coesar says the Druids asserted that the
Gauls were descended from the god Dis (lib. vi. c. 18), a tradition
probably to be regarded as implying an aboriginal character.
These claims are most probably to be taken as the
expression of ignorance, in those who made them, of any earlier
population.
t Lyell, "Principles," p. 662.
:]: In this instance, the argument from the physical characteristics
is strengthened by the reference of Tacitus to the
geographical position, "et posita contra Hispania."—Vit.
Agric. c. xi. Jornandes (Reb. Getic. c. 2), following Tacitus,
in this place, adds, that the hair of the Silures was black;
" Sylorum colorati vultus, torto pleriljue crine et nigra nasc
i m t u r a n d though omitted in the statement of the great
historian, the fact is probable : see the succeeding note.
§ In the hilly district of the north-west of Glamorganshire,
the descendants of the Silures may with great probabihty be
looked for. A resident magistrate of that county, W. Moggridge,
Esq., of Swansea, has kindly supplied us with notes of
the physical characteristics of the Welsh of that district, from
which we extract as follows :—" Eyes (long), bright, of dark
or hazel colour; hair generally black, or a very dark brown,
lank, generally late in turning grey; head middle-sized, wellformed
; face oval, or triangular, cheek-bones high; countenance
exhibiting cunning and sharpness; average height five
feet eight inches; build shght, well-formed ; females in early
life fresh-complexioned and handsome." These observations
confirm those of the Rev. T. Price ( " Essay," &c., 182D, p. 39),
who, writing of the Welsh of the same district of Glamorganshire—
the Vale of Neath, and country round MerthjT, obmmmÈ
a n