262 PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 



tlic Esquimaux mean of Tablo X is derived, I have recently compared and care- 

 fully measured six Tclmktchi skulls, in the collection of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, exhumed from the burial-place of a village called Tergnyuue, on the 

 island of Arikamcheche, at Glassnappc harbor, west of Bhering's straits ; and, 

 during a recent visit to Philadelphia, I enjoyed the advantage of examining, in 

 company with Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, a series of one hundred and twenty-five 

 Esquimaux crania, obtained by Dr. Hayes during his Arctic journey of ISGO. 

 The comparison between the Tchuktchi and the true Esquimaux skull is inter- 

 esting. Without being identical, the correspondence in form is such as their 

 languages and other aflinities would suggest. Of the former, moreover, the num- 

 ber is too few, and the derivation of all of them from one cemetery adds to the 

 chances of exceptional family features; but, on carefully examining the Hayea 

 collection with a view to this comparison, I found it was quite possible to select 

 an equal number of Esquimaux crania closely corresponding to the Tchuktchi 

 type : which indeed presents the most prominent characteristics of the former, 

 only less strongly marked. In both the skull is long, high, and pyramidal, and, 

 in the Esquimaux especially, the junction of the parietals is frequently in a keel- 

 like ridge, which extends into the depressed and narrow frontal bone. 



But the same mode of comparison which confirms the ethnical affinities 

 between the Esquimaux and their insular or Asiatic congeners, reveals, in some 

 respects, analogies rather than contrast between the dolichocephalic Indian cra- 

 nia and those of the hyperborean race. The most characteristic features of the 

 latter, as established by such a comparison, belong to the face, including the 

 small nasal bones and the prognathous jaw, neither of which pertain to the true 

 American Indian. The desired comparison may easily be made between the 

 Iroquois or Huron cranium and that of the Esquimaux, from the vertical and 

 occipital diagrams furni.^hed in the Crania Americana, (pp. 192, 194, 248.) 

 Botn are elongated, pyramidal, and with a tendency towards a conoid, rather 

 than a flattened or vertical occipital form; and when placed alongside of the 

 most markedly typical Mexican or Peruvian heads, the one differs little less 

 widely from these than the other. The contrast between the Huron and Esqui- 

 maux, obvious as it is, may be defined as physiognomical rather than cerebral ; 

 while some of the elements of calvarial correspondence are striking. The charac- 

 teristics of the Esquimaux skull are defined by Dr. Meigs as " large, long, nar- 

 row, pyramidal; greatest breadth near the base; sagittal suture prominent and 

 keel like, in consequence of the junction of the parietal and two halves of the 

 frontal bones; proportion between length of head and height of face as seven to 

 five; . — forehead flat and receding; occiput full and salient; face broad and 

 lozenge shaped, the greatest breadth being just below the orbits; malar bonea 

 broad, high, and prominent, zygomatic arches massive and widely separated ; 

 nasal bones flat, narrow, and united at an obtuse angle, sometimes lying in the 

 same pUme as the naso-maxillary processes "* But, in reference to the nasal 

 development, wherein it difiers so decidedly from the true Indian physiognomy, 

 the remarks of Dr J. Barnard Davis are worthy of note. In the Esquimaux 

 of the eastern shores of Baffin's bay, lie observes, the nasal bones are scarcely 

 broader, though frequently longer than in some Chinese skulls, where they are 

 so narrow as to be reduced to two short linear bones. " In those of the opposite, 

 or American shores of Baffin's bay, they are very different, presenting a length, 

 breadth, and angle of position almost equal to those of European races having 

 aquiline noses. "t This slight yet striking anatomical dificrence seems to supply 

 a link of considerable value as indicative of a trait of physiognomical character 

 in the more southern Esquimaux, tending, if confirmed by further observation, 

 like other physical characteristics already noticed, to modify the abrupt transi- 



* Catalovue of Human Crania, A.N.S., 1857, p. 50. 

 t Crania JirUunnica, p. 30. 



