258 PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 



occipital formation generally, it very effectually deals with all theories of radical 

 diversities of human varieties or distinct species, in so far as this important subdi- 

 vision of osteological evidence is concerned, by affirming, as the result of observa- 

 tions made on eleven hundred and twenty-live human crania, ''that there is a 

 marked tendency of these forms to graduate into each other, more or less iusen- 

 Bibly. None of these forms can be said to belong exclusively to any race or 

 tribe. None of them, therefore, can be regarded as strictly typical : for a char- 

 acter or form to be typical should be exclusive and constant." In his elaborate 

 observations. Dr. ]\Ieigs has still left untouched the peculiarities Avhich distin- 

 guish the female occi[)ut. One elongated protuberant form appears to mo to bo 

 found only in the female head; but a comparative estimate of the occipital 

 variatii)ns in the two sexes, as exhibited in the difTerent races, is necessary to 

 complete this interesting inquiry. 



2. The tend(uicy to the pyramidal form, occasioned by the angular junction 

 of the parietal bones, is apparent in the majority of the skulls examined. I 

 have noted its occurrence as a prominent characteristic in twenty-three Canadian 

 crania, of which ten exhibit a strongly marked pyramidal form, extending to 

 the frontal bone. Nevertheless, it is by no means constant. Both in the Morton 

 collection, and in the examples specially noted here, it is only slightly indicated 

 in some, while in others it is entirely wanting. 



3. I am further struck with the veiy partial projection, and in somo 

 male skulls with the total absence of the superciliary ridge: a characteristic 

 which, so far as I am aware, has not been noted by other observers. In 

 some the prominent ridge stretches entirely across the brow, forming a deep 

 hollow at the junction of the os frontis and the bones of the nose; and this 

 appears to be the case in the best authenticated Mound skulls. In the Scioto 

 mound cranium it is markedly so, and it is little less apparent in the Grave 

 creek niomul, Tennessee, and Mississippi skulls. In this respect they differ 

 from the majority of the Peruvian crania, with which in other respects they have 

 been snjiposed so nearly to agree, that, overlooking this prominent physiognom- 

 ical featnr(>, the lost Mound-builders have been thought to reappear as the an- 

 cient architects of Peru. In the great majority of the crania figured by IMorton, 

 the very slight development, and in some, the total absence of a projecting 

 superciliary ridge, is very noticeable. In thirteen of the Canadian skulls tho 

 same feature is particularly manifest. In the majority of these the os frontis 

 slopes Avithout any indentation to the edges of the orbits ; and when taken into 

 consideration along with the pyramidal vertex and predominant longitudinal 

 diameter, suggests affinities, hitherto overlooked, with the Esquimaux form of 

 skull. 



4. It is also worthy of note that, whereas Dr. Morton states, as the result of 

 his experience, that the most distant points of the parietal bones are for the 

 most part the parietal protuberances: out of fifty-one Canadian skulls, I have 

 only found such to be the case in three, all of Avhich were female. The widest 

 parietal measurement is generally a little above the squamous suture, and in 

 some examples a still wider diameter is given between the temporal bones. 

 Somewhat minute observations, accompanied in part with measurements, of 

 numerous examjiles in the unrivalled collection of the Academy of Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, and elsewhere, incline me to believe that this is a common charac- 

 teristic of American crania. 



The following tables (Tables Vlll, IX) exhibit the relative proportions of 

 the crania Ibund in Upper Canada, in so far as they can be shown by such a 

 scries of measurements. Embracing, as they do, the comparative length, breadth, 

 height, and circumference of sixty-nine skulls, procured without any special 

 selection from Indian cemeteries, lying, with only four exceptions, to the north 

 of Lakes Erie and Ontario, they supply a series derived from a sufficient number 

 to indicate some constant proportions, and to mark certain elements of conti'ast 



