76 [August, 



only have belonged to savages ; and it is interesting to observe such 

 remarkable accordance between the cranial developments, and mental 

 and moral faculties. Perhaps we could nowhere find humanity in a 

 more debased form than among these very Shoshonees, for they possess 

 the vices, without the redeeming qualities of the surrounding Indian 

 tribes; and even their cruelty is not combined with courage. A well 

 formed head is no evidence of superior intellect ; but on the other 

 hand, a head that is defective in all its proportions, must be almost in- 

 evitably associated with low and brutal propensities, and corresponding 

 degradation of mind; and such is pre-eminently the case with the 

 wretched Shoshonees. 



" 4. The fourth skull of this series is the very type of Indian confor- 

 mation ; broad and full in the inter-parietal region ; the occiput vertical 

 and the vertex itself remarkably prominent. The face is broad ; the 

 nose salient ; the skull thick ; and the whole structure massive to an 

 extreme degree : yet this head, which is that of a man of sixty years, 

 has an internal capacity of ninety-one cubic inches, or ten above the 

 average of his race. The tribe to which he belonged could not be as- 

 certained. The skull was picked up on the western slope of the Cali- 

 fornian mountains, and among the haunts of the Shashonees ; but its 

 developments would lead me to refer it to some other and more intel- 

 lectual tribe." 



The following resolutions were oifered by Dr. Morton, and unani- 

 mously adopted : — 



Resolved, That the cordial thanks of this Society be tendered to the 

 Hon. Court of Directors of the East India Company, for their very 

 liberal and most interesting donation of a series of casts of the Sivalik 

 fossils, which have been safely received, and are now in progress of 

 arrangement in the collections of the Academy. 



Resolved, That the grateful thanks of this Society be presented to 

 their associate, Dr. Thomas Horsfield, for his present of the cast of the 

 cranium of Sivatheriumgiganteum, (which has been received in perfect 

 condition, and will form a most valuable addition to the Academy's 

 series of Sivalik fossils,) and also for the accompanying copies of the 

 Plantae Javanicoe rariores, and Annulosa Javanica. 



August 22d, 1848. 

 Vice President Morton in the Chair. 



Letters were read from the Rev. Wm. Scoresby, D. D., dated 

 Whitby, Yorkshire, England, July 19th, 1848, and from Col. J. C. 

 Fremont, dated Washington, D. C, August 19th, 1848, severally 

 acknowledging the receipt of their notices of election as Correspon- 

 dents. 



Dr. Gambel read a paper describing new Californian Quadrupeds, 

 which was referred to the following Committee : Mr. Cassin, Dr. 

 Wilson, and Dr. Bridges. 



