nature to be of beautiful, tall, and strong persons of well-formed and well-coloured faces:-"Tanquam itaque Natura probans quid per se valeat fingere, non cessat et figurare quousque in robur perfectum, pulcherrimis et proceris corporibus, et coloratissimis vultibus, homines istos provehat et producat.' On the Intellectual Characteristics of the Ancient Irish. By JOHN O'DONOVAN, LL.D. The author laid particular stress upon a passage in Bede's Ecclesiastical History,' lib. iii. c. 7, to prove their love of learning and their wish to impart it to the Saxons, while their neighbours the Cymri or Welsh people were unwilling to communicate any literary or religious instruction to the Saxons. He next glanced over the history of various Irishmen who distinguished themselves on the Continent by their learning, as Columbanus of Bobbio, St. Fursey of Peronne, St. Fridolin, St. Gall, Virgilius, Solivǎgus the Geometrician; Alcuin, Dungal, Joannes Scotus Erigena; whose learning and scepticism were most remarkable for the age in which he flourished; Marianus Scotus, &c. On the Surnames of the Irish People, their Meanings, and the various changes which they have undergone since the English Invasion of Ireland. By JOHN O'DONOVAN, LL.D. On this subject, to which he had devoted much time and study, the author intended to publish a dictionary of Irish surnames, in which he would give the history, location, and census of all the families of Irish and Anglo-Irish descent now in Ireland, with references to all the ancient Irish and Anglo-Irish documents and records, in which the origins and particular histories of these families are to be found, and to the churches in which they have been interred. On the Probable Migrations and Variations of the Earlier Families of the Human Race. By Rear-Admiral FITZROY, F.R.S. In one of the first places which the author visited on the opposite side of the world, he found no fewer than twenty-eight varieties of man. They were all distinct, known by different names, and classified by no less an authority than Hum. boldt. It was the city of Lima, in Peru; where one now may watch the colour, features, and form of almost every variety in the world. He was greatly struck by this aggregation of colours and appearances. We all know that in Lima 400 years since, there were only three distinct varieties; 500 years ago there was but one race (apparently) in Lima, the aboriginal Peruvian; next the Spaniards (or Whites) came, and with them Negroes from Africa: from which three sources have sprung in the short space of 300 years all those varieties which are now so distinctly marked. In some parts of India, also, there are numerous races, and in the Mauritius there are likewise many varieties. It is desirable to keep in mind three particular epochs in the world's history, namely, 1st. The commencement of this century. 2ndly. About 3000 years ago; and 3rdly. The earliest dispersion of the human race. First, as to the world's population at the beginning of this century. At that time there were in existence in Van Diemen's Land, a few remnants of an aboriginal race, which have since vanished. There were in Africa the genuine black man, the brown Moor or Berber; the red man, or Caffre; the Hottentot, and the Bushman. The latter are frequently regarded as degenerated varieties, but those who have seen the interior of that country know that they cannot be so classed. In America, from Cape Horn to the Arctic Circle, we then found the same race of men-the same colour and hair. Having (twenty-five years ago) brought home four natives of Tierra del Fuego, who remained with him for three years, the author was naturally much struck on seeing an Esquimaux brought to England by Captain Ommaney, precisely like the Fuegians in all respects; and as we know the habits of those who wander in canoes along the South American and the North American coasts are similar, this would seem to show that the original stock was the same. From this and other facts, the author thinks that all the tribes of America are of one aboriginal race, except those of Eastern Patagonia. In Asia the inhabitants of the Northern and Eastern parts are generally of a yellower hue, but do not differ much in feature from the Americans. In the west of America, the natives look to the West as the place from which they came, and bury their dead towards the West (placing them "towards the spirits of their ancestors,' as they say); while the natives of the east coast of Patagonia point to the eastward as the quarter whence they came, and they bury their dead on the highest hills to the eastward for a similar reason. It is remarkable that none of them derive their origin from their present localities in America. In Africa the natives point to the North as the place of their origin; and, briefly, all aboriginal tribes have been found by travellers and the learned to derive their origin more or less directly from the central regions of Asia. It may be asked, How could they have migrated so far in those early days? Land travelling probably was not difficult, however slow, while the power of crossing the sea in early times is not perhaps sufficiently appreciated in general. The double canoe of the South Sea or Polynesian Islands is not commonly known, and is nearly extinct as it formerly existed. It was one of the most sea-worthy vessels that could have been devised in those primitive times, and in such vessels families could have migrated not only along coasts, but across oceans; where no doubt they were liable to be driven far away from their intended destination by unexpected winds, and perhaps currents. Such casualties may have been the cause of early cannibalism. Regarding the possible connexion of those who migrated from Asia (the Tartar and Malay race) with the tribes of the west coast of America, independently of intercourse by Behring's Strait, the author remarks that if Malays were driven into the winds which always blow westward-anti-trades or moonsoons-they must go towards the coast of America, which we know has happened within the last few centuries, and would account for their derivation of origin from Asia. The habits and appearance of the Aborigines of Chiloe and Western Patagonia correspond with many of the New Zealander's peculiarities. The black races of Polynesia are a mixed breed, between the genuine Negro and the reddish-brown man, or Malay. On one little island of the Indian Ocean (the Keeling or Cocos), an Englishman was found married to a mixed or half-breed Malay. Their children were of a rich bright red copper colour. Some children of Englishmen and native New Zealand women were not of that colour in the first generation, but were so in the second. Of this the author can bear ocular testimony. The result of the whole inquiry is thus expressed :-"To reduce races to their original or primitive number, we can only reach to the white and the black by tracing back the intermixtures." The author concludes by referring to some passages of the Scriptures which bear on this subject. On some Skulls discovered in an ancient Sepulchral Mound near Mount Wilson in King's County, Ireland. By JOHN GRATTAN. On the Progress already made in the Transcription and Translation of the Ancient Laws of Ireland, called the Brehon Laws. By the Rev. Professor GRAVES. The author referred to the array of quarto MS. volumes on the table before him, as evidence of the amount of work that had been already accomplished. The first thing done, after ascertaining all the MSS. of those laws that were to be found in the libraries of Trinity College, the Royal Irish Academy, the British Museum, and the Bodleian Library, was to entrust the transcription to Dr. O'Donovan and Mr. Curry. This was commenced in 1853; and at the present time about six thousand quarto pages of manuscript had been transcribed, and about two thousand pages had been translated. The transcript had been executed in anastatic ink, which enabled them to make several copies,-one great advantage of which was that they had been able readily to compile a vast glossary of the words used in the laws, with all the quotations to illustrate their meaning, arranged alphabetically. He had to mention, as an interesting fact, that Mr. Curry had been enabled, by this glossary, to investigate some of the legal terms in the ancient Welsh laws, which the Welsh translators had been unable fully to explain. The language of these manuscripts was very ancient, and the writing was in many places scarcely legible: hence it was impossible to estimate the amount of labour and of eyesight expended on them. This great work, however, was worth all the labour devoted to it. It was a most important contribution to our history, for nothing better explained the history and manners of a people than their laws and institutions. They throw a light even upon the history of other countries. The glossary which they had formed would be of the utmost value for the knowledge of the Celtic languages; and he had no doubt that the Brehon Laws would present to us a picture of the civilization of this country as it existed from twelve to fifteen hundred years ago. What length of time would be requisite, he might be asked, until this work would be completed? He had already told them what had been done in the last four years, and if it took as much more it would be worth the expense. He was happy to inform them that there was no fear that the work would be left unfinished. At the close of the late session of Parliament the Government had provided ample means for completing and publishing it. The Rev. Professor GRAVES made a communication, the object of which was to identify the river Dur, mentioned by Ptolemy in his description of Ireland, with the Kenmare river. The principal argument by which Dr. Graves endeavoured to establish this conclusion, rests on the fact that at the mouth of the Kenmare river is an island retaining to this day the name of Dursey. The obvious and certain derivation of this name is Durs-ey, i. e. the Island of Dur," "Dur" meaning water. Dr. Graves noticed that the termination "ey," meaning island, entered into the names of Dalkey, Ireland's Eye, and Lambay, on the Irish coast, not to mention Anglesey and other islands on the coast of Britain. The order in which Ptolemy enumerates the principal headlands, rivers, and maritime towns of Ireland also shows that the river which he calls the Dur is on our south-west coast. Ware and O'Connor have expressed the opinion that the Dur of Ptolemy was Dingle Bay, or Castlemaine Bay, but they have stated no grounds for their belief. Dr. Graves concluded by observing that the Irish topographical names appearing in Ptolemy's list deserve a more complete discussion than they have yet received. On the Influence of the Gulf-stream on the Climate of Ireland. By referring to a large map of the British Isles*, the isothermal lines, or lines indicating the distribution of equal temperature, were shown to run not even approximately in the direction of the parallels of latitude, as might be expected, but in curves almost concentric, and following very nearly the windings of the coast. These relations to the coast line illustrated a fact first pointed out by Dr. Lloyd, President of the Association, which was deduced from a series of both day and night observations, namely, that the mean temperature of the sea off the west coast of Ireland is four degrees higher than the main temperature of the land. All these facts are easily explained by the phenomenon of the Gulf-stream, or warm current of water, which, as is well known to navigators, flows from the Gulf of Mexico in the direction of those islands and the north-west coast of Europe. That current of water, heated in the warm regions where it commences, exercises its influence very sensibly on the atmosphere, raising its temperature, and charging it with vapours, which are known to give out a certain amount of heat during their subsequent precipitation. From Dr. Wilde's historical Report on the Diseases and Cosmical Phenomena of Ireland,' presented with the Census returns, extreme depressions of temperature appear to have taken place in remote ages in that country; and such changes might have been * A copy of this map has been published in the 'Atlantis' for July 1858, and in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society,' Part 32. caused by the temporary deflection of the Gulf-stream, arising from some perturbation in the Atlantic, thus leaving the island for the moment in the same position as continental regions under the same parallel of latitude. On the Round Towers of Ireland. By GORDON M. HILLS. The author exhibited drawings, forty-four in number, illustrating forty of the round towers, being the first portion of a survey still in progress, which is intended to include drawings of every round tower in existence, with the architectural features of each shown at large, and the dimensions taken either by actual measurement or by the sextant and artificial horizon. The survey extends to the churches and buildings adjacent to, or in connexion with the round towers; and in addition, to the sites and buildings where there is authority for believing that round towers have existed. An abstract of the particulars given of the first portion of the survey is as follows:1st. Towers retaining the conical cap complete, or nearly so. No. 1 has lost about 3 feet of the point of the cone, 3 and 4 have lost about 18 inches each. 2nd. Those towers which are perfect to the base of the cone, or retain only a small portion of it : High to base of cone. feet. in. Diameter at base. feet. in. 3rd. The following, which have had battlemented additions made to the height of Killashee, Co. Kildare, has a square base; St. Kevin's Tower, Glendalough, Co. Wicklow, stands on the vaulted roof of St. Kevin's Church at the west end. It is perfect, and measures 46 feet high from the ground to the apex. On the relation between the newly-discovered Accadian Language and the Indo-European, Semitic, and Egyptian Languages; with remarks on the original values of certain Semitic Letters, and on the state of the Greek Alphabet at different periods. By the Rev. E. HINCKS, LL.D. The facts from which the author proposed to reason relate to the language of the Assyrians, the mode of writing of the Assyrians, and the language of the people who invented this mode of writing, or, as they have been called, the Accadians. The Assyrian language is a member of the family which has been generally called Semitic. This term may be retained, as no preferable term presents itself; but is objectionable, as we have no reason to suppose that the divisions of mankind with respect to language and with respect to descent were coincident. All the Semitic languages that were known before the discovery of the Assyrian agree with one another in some important particulars in which they differ from the Assyrian. For example, they have H in the separate pronouns and affixes of the third person, and in the preformative of causative verbs; while the Assyrian has S. They may be classed together as the Syro-Arabian sub-family of the Semitic family of languages; the Assyrio-Babylonian being its other sub-family. The grand distinctive feature of the Semitic languages is that in them the roots are consonantal. Most commonly, they consist of three consonants, or what are considered as such; but in no instance does a vowel form part of the root. The vowels are used to determine the grammatical forms, which they sometimes do alone, but oftener with the assistance of consonants, prefixed or suffixed to those of the root or inserted among them. In all other languages, on the contrary, the roots are syllabic; though in many languages the vowels are liable to be changed in certain grammatical forms, and consonants may be inserted within the roots. Besides the ordinary consonants, the semi-vowels W and Y, and certain breathings, there are combinations of consonantal sounds, which are treated in Semitic grammar as simple consonants. Now this distinctive feature of Semitic language, that its roots are consonantal, connects itself naturally with a distinctive feature of Semitic writing. It is consonantal. Its characters represent those consonants, or what were considered as such, which are capable of being elements of roots. It has, properly speaking, no vowels. In Hebrew, as it is now printed, there are points attached to the letters, which indicate the vowels with which these letters are to be sounded; but it is generally admitted that these points were no part of the original text. There are also some letters, which in certain cases supply the place of vowels when the points are not written. |