The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-05 00:00:00

ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

A meeting of this society was held on Tuesday,
J. Crawford, Esq., president, in the chair, when
five papers were read.

1. "On Human Remains found in the Shell
Mounds of the Malay Peninsula." By Professor
Huxley. The author states he had examined the
bones, but they were in a too fragmentary state to
admit of any decisive conclusions being drawn.
2. On human remains from Muskham, in the
Valley of the Trent, and from Heathery Burn
Cave, near Stanhope, in Weardale." By S. J.
Mackie, F.G.S. The Trent, or Muskham skull, was
found in making a new channel for the river during
the construction of the Great Northern Railway, at
a depth of 25 feet, under loam, clay, and silt, asso-
ciated withbones of Bos primigeniue,Bos loreifrons,
Irish elk, and other mammalia. It possesses-very
peculiar characters, and belongs to an extinct and
pre-historic race of men. Its most remarkable fea-
ture is the unusual direction of the plane of the
foramex magnum, or cavity in the skull, in which
the vertebral column fits. The direction of this
plane, indicating an approach in a very remote
degree to the forward setting of the head on the
gorilla and chimpanzee, leading therefore to the
inference that the individual to whom it belonged
was possibly not completely erect in his carriage.
The author did not think, however, that any race-
character should be positively drawn from a single
specimen, as such a character might be accidental.
The other human remains and relics described con-
sisted of various bones of limbs, vertebrae, &c., and
portions of several skulls with bronze, bone, and
jet articles, fragments of charcoal, shells of oysters,
muscles, limpets, bones split for their marrow, and
pottery found in a cave exposed by some quarry-
ing operations at Heathery Barn, in Durham,
The human bones belonged to the same
singular pre-historic race of men of which examples
have been met, with by geologists widelydistributed
over the British Islands. The bronze relics were
those of the so•called " Bronze Period," and were at
least 2,000 years old. The pottery was identical
with that of the same age from the Swiss Lakes.

3. "Oa the wild Veddahs of Ceylon." By S.
Bailey, Esq., B.A. Early in 1854 the author was
appointed to the charge of the extensive district of
Badulla, which comprises, besides the ancient
Kandyan Province of Ouvah, that portion of the
island where the most barbarous Veddah tribes are
found. Under these circumstances he ac-
cumulated much curious and valuable in-
formation. The term Veddah or Weddah in itself
indicates no particular race. In this sense a great
portion of the population of the eastern parts of
Ceylon appear at some period or another to have
been so called. There are still extensive districts
known as " Weddirata," or the country of the
Veddahs, the inhabitants of which—although they
are, owing to the remoteness of their situation,
less civilised than the bulk of the people of the
island—are not Veddahs but Singalese, in kindred,
religion, and custom, It is the " wilder sort" of
Veddahs, as Knox calls them, who roam about
Nilgala, of whom the author desired to place on
record an accurate description. In appearance,
the Veddahs differ materially from the Singalese.
They are smaller in every respect, and darker in
complexion, short, slightly built, and active. The
tallest Veddah the author ever saw was five
feet three inches—the shortest, four feet one inch.
Their cloth is the most scanty conceivable, a
scrap of dirty cloth not bigger than a sheet of
letter-paper being a full-dress suit for male or
female. Neither sex is remarkable for personal
cleanliness, and with their rugged unkempt locks
half-obscuring their features, the Veddahs realise
the idea of the most barbarous of savages.

4. "Descriptive Notices of Original Drawings
taken at Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast between
1848 and 1859." By Mrs. Clarke.
5. " On the Influence of Climate and of Hybri-
dity, or the Commingling of Nations over the vari-
ous Races of Men." By Dr. Robert Knox. The
object of this paper was, first, to support views
brought forward many years ago by the author in
respect of the supposed influence of climate over
the physical and moral nature of mankind; and,
secondly, to prove by an appeal to history the
theories he then offered on the effects of the com-
mingling of races. In the discussion which fol-
lowed Mr. Evan, Mr. Cator Blake, Mr. Mackie, Dr
Macgowan, Mr. Luke Burke, Mr. Prideaux, Dr.
Hunt, Sir John Bowring, Mr. Thomas Wright,
Mr. Poole, Dr. Knox, and the president took part.

MARKETS---THIS DAY.

COVENT GARDEN.

The supply of fruit is not to say extensive, but the mar-
ket is well supplied with vegetables. The trade, generally
speaking, remains inactive, at the annexed currency :

FRUIT.

s. d. a. d.
Pine apples, perlb 6 0 to 10 0
Colonial do., each 0 0 to 0 0
Grapes,per lb 5 0 to 10
Foreign do 0 0 to 0 0
Peaches . 2l 0 to 40 0
Nectarines, per dzlB 0 to 36 0
Apples, per hf-sv. 0 0 to 0 0
Pears, per do
Oranges, per 100 5 0 to 12 0
Lemons, per 120 5 0 to 9 0
Gooseberries ht sve3 0 to 4 0
Strawberries pr pt 0 4 to 1 0

s. d. sd.
Cherries, per lb. 0 4to 1 0
Foreign ditto, punt 6to $ 0
Filberts, per lb .. 0 oto 0 9
Cobnuts, per lb o'o to 0 0
Almonds, per bus 0 oto 0 6
Walnuts, per 100 0 oto 0 0
Figs, per d0z.....12 oto 0 0
Damson 0 oto 0 0
Currants, per Kay 3 oto 4 6
Plums, per do. .. 0 oto 0 6
Greengages, pr do. 0 oto 0 0
Raspberries,pr pt 0 4to 0 8