Crania of Aboriginal Americans, 117 



other words, that the physical characteristics which distinguish 

 the different races, are independent of external causes." 



Dr Morton describes the general characteristics of the Ame- 

 rican, under the head of the " Varieties of the Human Spe- 

 cies," and then enters on a special description of the " crania'* 

 of upwards of seventy nations or tribes belonging to that fa- 

 mily, illustrating the text by admirable plates of the crania, 

 drawn from skulls, mostly in his own possession, and of the 

 full size of nature. 



He regards the American race as possessing certain physi- 

 cal traits that serve to identify them in localities the most 

 remote from each other. There are, also, in their multitudi- 

 nous languages, the traces of a common origin. He divides 

 the race into the " Toltecan family," which bears evidence of 

 centuries of demi-civilization, and into the " American family," 

 which embraces all the barbarous nations of the new world, 

 excepting the Polar tribes, or Mongol Americans. The Eski- 

 maux, and especially the Greenlanders, are regarded as a par- 

 tially mixed race, among whom the physical character of the 

 Mongolian predominates, while their language presents ob- 

 ^dous analogies to that of the Chippewyans, who border on 

 them to the south. 



In the American family itself, there are several subordinate 

 groups ; 1*^, The Appalachian branch includes all the nations 

 of North America, excepting the Mexicans, together with the 

 tribes north of the river of Amazon and east of the Andes. 

 2d, The Brazilian branch is spread over a great part of South 

 America east of the Andes, viz., between the rivers Amazon 

 and La Plata, and between the Andes and the Atlantic, thus 

 including the whole of Brazil and Paraguay north of the 35th. 

 degree of south latitude. In character; these nations are war- 

 like, cruel, and unforgiving. They turn with aversion from 

 the restraints of civilized life, and have made but trifling pro- 

 gress in mental culture or the useful arts. In character, the 

 Brazilian nations scarcely differ from the Appalachian ; none 

 of the American tribes are less susceptible of cultivation than 

 these ; and what they are taught by compulsion, in the mis- 

 sions, seldom exceeds the humblest elements of knowledge. 

 3</, The Patagoniari branch includes the nations south of the 

 La Plata, to the Straits of Magellan, and the mountain tribes 



