in THE ENGIS SKULL. 101 



" The earth which contained this human skull ex- 

 hibited no trace of disturbance: teeth of rhinoceros, horse, 

 hyaena, and bear, surrounded it on all sides. 



" The famous Blumenbach * has directed attention to 

 the differences presented by the form and the dimensions 

 of human crania of different races. This important work 

 would have assisted us greatly, if the face, a part essen- 

 tial for the determination of race, with more or less ac- 

 curacy, had not been wanting in our fossil cranium. 



" We are convinced that even if the skull had been 

 complete, it would not have been possible to pronounce, 

 with certainty, upon a single specimen; for individual 

 variations are so numerous in the crania of one and the 

 same race, that one cannot, without laying one's self open 

 to large chances of error, draw any inference from a single 

 fragment of a cranium to the general form of the head to 

 which it belonged. 



" Nevertheless, in order to neglect no point respecting 

 the form of this fossil skull, we may observe that, from the 

 first, the elongated and narrow form of the forehead at- 

 tracted our attention. 



" In fact, the slight elevation of the frontal, its narrow- 

 ness, and the form of the orbit, approximate it more 

 nearly to the cranium of an Ethiopian than to that of an 

 European; the elongated form and the produced occiput 

 are also characters which we believe to be observable in 

 our fossil cranium; but to remove all doubt upon that 

 subject I have caused the contours of the cranium of an 

 European and of an Ethiopian to be drawn and the fore- 

 heads represented. Plate II, Figs. 1 and 2, and, in the 

 same plate, Figs. 3 and 4, will render the differences easily 

 distinguishable; and a single glance at the figures will 

 be more instructive than a long and wearisome descrip- 

 tion. 



* Decas Collectionis siiw craniorum diversarum gen- 

 tium illustrata. — Gottingoe, 1790-1820. 



175 



