154 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. vii. 



who had said, in respect to|the ancient skull referred to, that it 

 might have held the brains of a thoiio-htless savno-e, or it mi<'ht 

 have contained those of a philosopher. Dr. Dawson had referred 

 to only the differences in those remains from those of to day in 

 respect to the flattened tibia. There were, however, several other 

 characters of a similar nature which Dr. Dawson had not refer- 

 red to, some of which had been discovered by Prof. Wyman, and 

 had not yet been published. In the existing races of man the 

 foramen magnum (the large opening at the base of the skull 

 through which the brain communicates with the spinal cord) ex- 

 hibited very little change of position in its relation to the rest of 

 the skull, while with the higher primates (apes) this opening is 

 very near the posterior portion of the skull. This was illustrated 

 by a rapid drawing on the blackboard. In eleven ancient skulls 

 from the shell heaps of Tennessee, t\\Q foramen magnum in every 

 case was nearly an inch further back than in those of present ex- 

 isting races. The powerful muscles on the sides of the head 

 that move the jaws leave a distinct line at their upper points of 

 attachment. These lines are called temporal ridges. In all 

 present existing races a space occurs on the top of the skull, 

 between these lines, of from three and a half to four inches. In 

 the apes these muscles meet in the median line which rises into 

 a bony crest so characteristic of the gorilla. There was a re- 

 markable skull discovered by Prof. Wyman in the lowest beds of 

 the ancient shell heaps of Florida. This has the temporal ridges 

 approaching each other within a half inch at the top of the skull. 

 If the high development of the skull referred to by Mr. Dawson 

 was such as he states, it only curries man further back. Simi- 

 larly in the light throw^n upon the history of man by the wonder- 

 ful discoveries in archseology, where we meet with traces of an 

 ancient civilization, with complicated language and manners, we 

 €an surely believe in savage hordes pre-existing from which this 

 ancient civilization has been evolved. 



As to ths early traces of man we must fully appreciate the 

 rare possibility of their occurrence. Wherever you dredge in the 

 waters of the present day the traces of man are among the rarest 

 •^discoveries. The Lake of Haarlem, upon whose waters naval 

 battles have been fought, and on whose shores a dense population 

 has existed, was drained, and on its bottom not the slightest 

 traces of man's existence were found. Prof. Morse dredged re- 

 repeatedly for years off the shores of Maine, and no trace of man 



