234 



recent teeth. The dentine tubes were perfectly distinct. In one 

 section, there were two principal medullary canals running 

 longitudinally, and from these emanated several branches, fur- 

 nishing nutriment to the dentine, analogous to the medullary 

 canals of bones. 



September 19, 1855. 



Dr. Silas Durkee, in the Chair. 



Dr. Kneeland read the following paper, on a so-called 

 Opate Indian, exhibited in Boston, in September, 1855 : — 



This girl, who is 22 years of age, 4 feet 6 inches in height, 

 and of the weight of 112 lbs., is probably a member of some 

 Indian tribe, inhabiting the Sierra Madre Mountains. These 

 mountains run, for the most part, parallel to the Gulf of Cali- 

 fornia, through the Mexican States of Sonora and Cinaloa ; their 

 distance from the sea varies from 200 to 50 miles, and in the 

 neighborhood of Mazatlan, they come still nearer to the coast. 

 This girl has been called an Opate Indian ; if she belongs to 

 that tribe, she is from the central part of Sonora ; the tribe is 

 described by Mr. Bartlett, in his Personal Narrative, (Vol. 1, 

 p. 444,) as a quiet, agricultural people, living in thickly popu- 

 lated villages, noted for their bravery against the Apache tribe, 

 and altogether superior to their neighbors, the Yaquis. The 

 account does not agree with reports circulated about this individ- 

 ual ; though it is probable that the members of the tribe inhab- 

 iting the mountain range are very degraded, when compared with 

 those living in the fertile plains. The Opates, with the Tarahu- 

 maras, the Ceris, and the Mayos, occupy Sonora, from 28*^ to 

 30° N. latitude, and about the 33° of longitude West from Wash- 

 ington. On the other hand, the girl is said to have been obtained 

 from the Sierra Madre Mountains in Cinaloa, in the neighborhood 

 of Copala, which town is just on the edge of the mountains, about 



