PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 243 



Whilst, however, the supposed unity in physical foim asserted hy Dr. Morton, 

 and accepted as an established scientific truth in relation to the races of man in 

 the New World, has been reiterated on many occasions, its originator was not 

 unaware that it was, at most, only an approximation to his assumed type, and 

 was subject to variations of a very marked kind; although he did not allow their 

 just weight to these when determining the conclusions which seemed legitimately 

 to result from his carefully accumulated data. He thus remarks, in his Crania 

 Americana, on certain inimistakable diversities of form into which the assumed 

 American cranial type may be subdivided, when classing the so-called barbarous 

 nations: " After examining a great mimber of skulls, I find that the nations 

 east of the Alleghany mountains, together with the cognate tribes, have the 

 head more elongated than any other Americans. This remark applies especially 

 to the great Lenape stock, the Iroquois, and the Cherokees. To the west of the 

 M ssissippi Ave again meet with the elongated head in tbc Mandans, Ricaras, 

 Assinaboins, and some other tribes."* The Minetaries, Crows, Blackfeet, and 

 Oftoes are named along with those in his latest reference to the subject, thereby 

 transferring the Ottoes from the brachycephalic to the dolichocephalic class, m 

 which he had previously placed them; for, to his earlier statement, Dr. Morton 

 superadds the further remark : " Yet even in these instances the characteristic 

 truncature of the occiput is more or less obvious, Avhile many nations east of the 

 Rocky mountains have the rounded head so characteristic of the race, as the 

 Osages, Ottoes, Missouris, Dacotas, and numerous others. The same conformar 

 tion is common in Florida; but some of these nations are evidently of the 

 Toltecan family, as both their characteristics and traditions testify. The heads 

 of the Caribs, as well of the Antilles as of terj-a Jirma, are also naturally 

 rounded ; and we trace this character, as far as we have had opportunity for 

 examination, through the nations east of the Andes, the Patagonians, and the 

 tribes of Chili. In fact, the flatness of the occipital portion of the cranium will 

 probably be found to characterize a greater or less number of individuals in 

 every existing tribe from Terra del Fuego to the Canadas. If their skulls be 

 viewed from behind, we observe the occipital outline to be moderately curved 

 outward, wide at the occipital protuberances, and full from those points to the 

 opening of the ear. From the parietal protuberances there is a slightly curved 

 slope to the vertex, producing a conical or rather a Avedgc-shaped outline." 

 These opinions arc still more strongly advanced in Dr. Morton's most matured 

 views, where he affirms the American race to be essentially separate and peculiar, 

 and with no obvious links, such as he could discern, between them and the 

 people of the Old World, but a race distinct from all others. 



Some of the uniform features above referred to, and especially the flattened 

 occiput, are the product, as I believe, not of the approximation to any typical 

 form of skull, but of the subjection of the living head to the same artificial 

 compression, with a nearly uniform result. But this department of the subject 

 Avill come under review at a later stage. The views now set forth relative to the 

 American cranial type are founded on an extensive sei-ies of observations orig- 

 inally commenced in Canada, without any design to challenge the opinions set 

 forth by the author of the Crania Americana, and subsequently reiterated by 

 other distinguished American ethnologists. After liaving devoted minute atten- 

 tion to some departments of primitive British craniology, my removal to Canada 

 placed within my reach opportunities of judging for myself of the jihysical 

 characteristics of the aboriginal occupants of the American forests and prairies, 

 and I availed myself at first of those in the full anticipation of meeting Avitli 

 such evidences of a general approximation to the assigned noi-mal American 

 cranial type, as would confirm the deductions of previous observers. My chief 



•2 Crania Americana, p. 65 ; Physical Type of the American Indians ; History of Icdlna 

 Tribes, vol. ii, p. 317. 



