210 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



among these races the prevalence of both dolichocephalic and brachycephalie 

 forms, but also to demonstrate the existence of different well-marked types 

 into which they may he grouped, and which can be shown to be as different 

 from each other as any of the distinct forms indigenous to the Old World. 

 This I have attempted to do in the ensuing pages, carefully abstaining, how- 

 ever, for the present, from the expression of any opinion concerning the allied 

 but entirely distinct question of the origin and affiliations of these races. As 

 this question, in its osteological aspects, is intimately connected with the con- 

 sideration of the cranial characters of the Esquimau race, I propose, instead 

 of discussing it at present, to return to it in a future monograph upon the 

 skulls of the Polar people. 



The Human Cranial Collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia, contains at the present time 575 skulls of the Aborigines of Northern, 

 Central and South America. 



The Esquimau Family is represented by thirteen specimens from Baffin's 

 Bay, Storoe, Cape Alexander, Upernavick and Godhavn. Dr. I. I. Hays, on 

 his return from the Arctic regions in 1861, brought with him 125 skulls of this 

 race. This large and very important collection he kindly placed in my care 

 for study and description, with the request that I should select therefrom and 

 present to the Academy, as his donations, those specimens which appeared to 

 constitute the most suitable additions to the Museum.* Through these addi- 

 tions the Esquimau race, though occupying a region so remote and inacces- 

 sible, will be more numerously represented in the collection, than any of the 

 North American Indian tribes. 



Of the great Athapascan or Chippewyan Family, lying to the south of the 

 Esquimau area, and extending from Hudson's Bay westwardly towards the 

 Pacific Ocean, there is but one specimen in the Museum of the Academy. This 

 skull, No. 577 of my Catalogue of Human Crania, belongs, moreover, to none 

 of the tribes living in juxtaposition within the continuous area of the Athapas- 

 cas, but to a small detached band, called Tlatskanai or Klatskauai,t living in 

 the mountains south of the Columbia River, near the sea-coast. This tribe, 

 now nearly, if not quite extinct, belongs to the " Tahkali-Umkwa Family " of 

 Hale, | which is synonymous with the " Southern Athabaskans " of Latham. 

 It is thus classified on account of its philological affinities, which are Atha- 

 pascan. 



It is obviously impossible to determine the craniological relations of the 

 Tlatskanai, and through these of the Athapascas generally, by means of the 

 single cranium just referred to. This skull is artificially distorted or com- 

 pressed like the Chinook crania. The longitudinal and bi-parietal diameters 

 are nearly equal. Art has, therefore, rendered it brachycephalie. The upper 

 alveolus is quadrangular in form. 



To enumerate the various tribes of Athapascas of which cranial specimens 

 are wanting in the collection, would be to go over the entire list of these tribes 

 as now known. In view of the geographical position of this group, this is 

 much to be regretted. The Koluschians and Athapascans on the west of Hud- 

 son's Bay and the Algonquins on the east are the only Indians coterminous 

 with the Esquimaux. The Athapascan area borders upon the Esquimau re- 

 gion over a much greater extent of surface than that of either the Koluschians 

 or Algonquins. Among the Athapascas, the Coppermine, Dog-Rib and Hare 

 or Slave Indians come in contact with the Esquimaux as far north as the Arctic 

 circle. As they are thus exposed to the same climatic conditions it becomes 

 very important to compare the crania of these tribes with those of their para- 

 borean neighbors. The same remark applies to the northernmost of the Ko- 



* See Prr ceedings of the Acad. Nat. Sci., 1S62, p. 601. 



f Called Klatstoni by Morton, who figures and gives measurements of this skull in Crania Ame- 

 ricana, plate 44, p. 210. 



J Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. 2, p. 9. 

 (> The Natural History cf the Varieties of Man, p. 308. 



[May, 



