222 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



arcbed. A slight prominence of the sagittal suture is observed about one inch 

 posterior to the coronal. No. 707 is a shorter skull, and has a full, high fore- 

 head, a regularly arched crown, and an occiput full and rounded. No. 708 

 resembles 698, as do also Nos. 727, 729, 730, 732, 733, 753,- 1105 and 1286. 

 All these are long, oval-shaped heads, with a more or less narrow and promi- 

 nent occiput, and the coronal region regularly arched antero-posteriorly ex- 

 cept in No. 730, in which it is flatter. Nos. 726, 728 and 754 are not quite 

 so long ; the occipital region is also broader aud less prominent. All the above 

 specimens are from different parts of Florida. It, will thus be seen that in this 

 group there are at least two if not three distinct types: a short, high form, to 

 which Nos. 456 and 604 belong, and a long and more or less oval form, which 

 includes all the others. 



The three ancient Yamassee skulls, from a mound near Tampa, in Florida, 

 in which they appear to have lain upwards of a century, are all long, narrow 

 and high skulls, belonging to what I call the arched type. They may, in fact, 

 be taken as the standard of this type. In Nos. 1214 and 1215 the outline of the 

 crown is oval ; in No. 1216 the oval outline is interrupted by the greater breadth 

 between the parietal tubers. 



Two Cbetimache skulls, (Nos. 43, 70), one male and the other female, belong 

 to the brachycephalic class. They were exhumed from a cemetery in the 

 Parish of St. Mary, in Louisiana, and were considered by Morton as genuine 

 skulls of the Chetimache tribe. They are angularly round heads, with a 

 recedent forehead, elevated vertex, perpendicularly flattened occiput, and 

 striking breadth between the parietal bosses or ossific centres. The form of 

 these crania is, in many respects, peculiar. It belongs, as far as the general 

 contour goes, to the great short-headed class, in which are arranged the Ger- 

 mans, Finns, Laplanders, Kalmucks, Sclavonians and Turks. But from each 

 and all of these it differs in several respects. The outline of the coronal region 

 resembles a truncated spherical triangle, the base of which coincides with 

 the posterior biparietal diameter. In this respect these heads resemble some 

 of the German crania in the collection. But the latter differ from the former, 

 in the relation which the longitudinal diameter bear3 to the vertical. In the 

 general globnlarity of the posterior region, and the proximity of the foramen 

 magnum to the back of the head, the Chetimache cranium resembles the 

 Finnic, Sclavonic and Turkish types, but differs from them in the more 

 recedent and proportionately less broad forehead, which latter feature makes 

 the vertex appear more prominent. Of No. 70, the larger of the two heads 

 under consideration, the reader will find in Crania Americana, an excellent 

 lithograph, (plate 19,) together with the following observation from the pen 

 of Dr. Morton : " Th^ nearly vertical occiput, the great height of the skull, 

 and the size and strength of the bones of the face, are not surpassed by those 

 of any Indian cranium I have seen," (p. 163.) 



The young female Choctaw skull (No. 22) is a large, oval, high head with a 

 prominent occiput. 



The Euchee cranium (No. 39) is a comparatively short head, with a full, 

 rounded occipital region. In its general form it resembles the Slavic skull. 



The collection embraces 26 miscellaneous crania obtained from the mounds 

 in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee and Florida. 



No. 416 is an Indian skull taken from a mound seated on the high bluff 

 which overlooks the Mississippi river, one hundred and fifty miles above the 

 mouth of the Missouri. Morton describes it as " a large cranium, very full in 

 its vertical diameter, and broad between the parietal bones. "f It is a good 

 example of what I am disposed to call the arched type. It is dolichocephalic. 

 In its general arched form it resr /'.bles the Creek skull, No. 1454. The coronal 

 region closely resembles that exhibited by the Cherokee skull, (No. 634), 



* Erroneously numbered 1556 in the printed Catalogue. 

 t See Crania Americana, p. 221. 



