2G8 PRESENT STATE OF ETHNOLOGY 



former to the Gnanclies and other Atlantic populations, and of the 

 latter to the Mongols. A strong confirmation of this last position 

 may be found in the learned researches of M. Daa, respecting the 

 linguistic affinities of the people in question. 



The observations of intelligent travellers in all the countries bor- 

 dering on the Pacific leads us to the same definite conclusion with 

 regard to the predominant type in all of them. Thus, for Russian 

 America, we have the testimony of M. H. J. Hohnberg, who has 

 long resided in that distant country, and whose useful researches 

 have been given to the world in a separate series of the Actes de la 

 Societe Findlandaise des Sciences, Helsingfors, 1855. The skulls of 

 Oregon were familiar to Morton, to -whose liberality we ourselves owe 

 the possession of two, as we are indebted for another to Professor 

 Meigs, of Philadelphia. I have shown elsewhere that they belong 

 to the brachycephalic Mongol type, and afford the better indications 

 from not having undergone the artificial vertical compression in use 

 among the people of those regions. The Aztecs are represented in 

 our museum by three skulls found in an ancient cemetery near Mexico, 

 which was uncovered in digging intrenchments to protect the Mexi- 

 can capital against the armies of the United States. They are re- 

 markable for the shortness of their axis, their large flattened occiput, 

 obliquely truncated behind, the height of the semicircular line of the 

 temples, the shortness and trapezoidal form of the parietal plane. 

 They present an elevation or ridge along the sagittal suture; the base 

 of the skull is very short, the face slightly prognathic, as among the 

 Mongol-Kalmucs. They bear a strong analogy to the skulls of Peru- 

 vian brachycephala} delineated by Morton. 



"Everyone," says this last-mentioned savant, "who has studied 

 this subject attentively, knows that the skull of Peruvians presents a 

 flattened and almost vertical occiput. It is, besides, characterized by 

 an elevated sinciput, great inter-parietal breadth, considerable weight 

 of bone, prominent nose, with the maxillary region large and prog- 

 nathic. It is the type of the skull among all the tribes from Cape 

 Horn to Canada, in a degree more or less marked." There can be 

 no doubt that the skulls of the Araucanians of Chili are brachycephalic, 

 and present a striking resemblance in form to those of the Peruvians 

 and Mexicans. The same type is again recognized in the Pampas of 

 the republic of Buenos Ayres, and throughout Patagonia, to the limits 

 of Terra del Fuego. With the skulls of the Indians of Terra del 

 Fuego I am only acquainted through the excellent portraits in profile 

 taken during the voyage of Captain Fitzroy, (Narrative of the Sur- 

 veying Voyage, &c, 1839.) These show that the inhabitants of this 

 country are even more distinctly brachycephalic than the Indians of 

 the Pampas. 



To the tribes which we have thus cursorily reviewed, in proceed- 

 ing from the north towards the south, we are disposed, after Dr. 

 Latham, to apply the name of American Mongolida?. Our review 

 has chiefly been confined to the coasts, but they have also penetrated 

 very far into the interior, in the direction of the east. Thus, on the 

 authority of the great work of Morton, Crania Americana, we encoun- 



