if we can
solve the problem by so doing. We have noticed that substantially the
same stage of culture existed throughout Europe from Switzerland to the
British Islands. This points to the presence of a common race during at
least a portion of the time. But if there was a common race living in
Europe they would certainly possess common physical features. As a race
they may have been tall in stature, or medium, or short, and portions of
the human skeleton would show a uniformity in this regard.

Now one of the means that scientists use to determine the races of
men is a comparison of skulls, measured in a systematic manner. The
objection has been made that no reliance can be placed on these results,
because at the present day skulls of all sorts of shapes and sizes can
be obtained among people of the same nationality. But these objections
would not apply to people of prehistoric times. Their surroundings would
be simple and natural--not artificial and complex, as in modern times.
In our times people of different nationality are constantly coming in
contact, and intermarriage results; but in prehistoric times this
was not liable to occur, and so the comparative purity of blood would
certainly produce a much greater uniformity of physical features.<37>

From a very careful examination of a great number of burial mounds in
Great Britain, it has been ascertained that in all of those that date
back to Neolithic times, and contain portions of human skeletons, the
bones are always those of individuals small in stature, the average
height being about five and a half feet. The skulls are of that variety
known as long skulls. From this we can at once form a mental picture of
the Neolithic inhabitants of Britain. No less important conclusions have
been deduced from the study of burial mounds on the continent. We meet
with remains of these same small-sized people. "They have left traces
of their presence in numerous interments in chambered tombs and caves in
Belgium and France, as well as in Spain and Gibraltar. We may therefore
conclude that at one period in the Neolithic Age the population of
Europe, west of the Rhine and north of the Alps, was uniform in physique
and consisted of the same small people as the Neolithic inhabitants of
Britain and Ireland."<38>

We must now inquire whether there are any people living in Europe which
might have descended from the original stock. We are in the position of
those who, from a few broken