PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 247 



racnt are very partial. The vertical occiput of the ancient skull rounds some- 

 what abruptly into a flat horizontal vertex, and with the well developed fore- 

 head and short longitudinal diameter, gives a peculiar square form to it in pro- 

 file. In the modern skull, on the contrary, the occipital flattening is not so much 

 that of the occiput proper as of the posterior part of the parietal, together with 

 the upper angle of the occipital bone; thereby uniting Avith the receding fore- 

 head of the latter, to produce a conoid outline, in striking contrast to the square 

 form of the other. Still further, a vertical line drawn through the auditory fora- 

 men shows a remarkable preponderance of posterior cerebral development in the 

 ancient skull, constituting indeed its most striking peculiarity. But a compar- 

 ison of the measurements of the two skulls serves no less effectually to refute 

 the supposed correspondence adduced in proof of a typical unity traceable 

 throughout tribes and nations of the western hemisphere the most widely sepa- 

 rated alike by time and space. 



Ancient. Modern. 



Longitudinal diameter 6.5 6.9 



Parietal 6.0 5.7 



Vertical 6.2 5.4 



Frontal 4.5 4.6 



Inter-mastoid arch 16.0 15.5 



Inter-mastoid line 4.5 4.75 



Occipito-frontal arch 13. S 14.4 



Horizontal circumference 19.8 20.4 * 



It is not to be supposed that any single skull can be selected as the embodi- 

 ment of all the essential typical characteristics either of the ancient or the mod- 

 ern cranial conformation ; nor can we deduce general conclusions as to the physi 

 cal characteristics of the ancient mound-builders from the remarkable example- 

 above referred to. We lack, indeed, sufficient data as yet for any absolute deter- 

 mination of the cranial type of the mounds; but the Scioto mound skull cannol. 

 with propriety be designated as "the only skull incontestably belonging to au 

 individual of that race." The Grave creek Mound craniimi, figured by Dr. 

 Morton, belongs no less indisputably to the same race, and presents in its arched 

 forehead, prominent superciliary ridges, and compact, uniformly rounded profile, 

 a general correspondence to the previous example.* In 1853 Ur. J. C. Warren 

 exhibited to the Boston Natural History Society the cast of a second and more 

 perfect skull from the same mound, t which I have since examined and measured 

 in the collection of Dr. J. Mason AVarren. It is also worthy of note that sev- 

 eral inferior maxillary bones of the mound skeletons have been recovered nearly 

 entire. They are remarkable for their massiveness, but are described as less 

 projecting than those pertaining to the skeletons of a later date.| Another 

 skull figured by Dr. Morton, from a mound on the Upper Mississippi, was obtained 

 from an elevated site bearing considerable resemblance to that where the Scioto 

 valley cranium was found, but the evidence is insufficient to remove the doubts 

 which its proportions suggest, that in this, as in so many other cases, we have 

 only one of those later interments habitually made by the modern Indians in 

 the superficial soil of the mounds. It is better, meanwhile, to reject all doubtful 

 specimens than to incur the risk of cumbering such well-authenticated evidence 

 as we may anticipate with uncertainty and confusion. The following table 

 includes a series of measurements of mound and ancient cave crania, mostly 

 taken by myself from the originals in the collection of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences at Philadelphia and elsewhere: 



* Crania Americana, pi. liii, p. 223. 



\ Proceedings of Boston Natural History Society, vol. iv, p. 331. 



t Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 290. 



