78 REPOUT— 1844. 



sutures of the cranium, especial I j' the squamous suture, had been prevented bj' pitch- 

 ing them over with a native bitumen and cementing pieces of the nacreous Hning of 

 shells along the course of the sutures. 



The exterior of this specimen of barbarous art was polished, and the processes and 

 other protuberances worn smooth by habitual use : the effects of this were most ob- 

 vious on the external angular processes of the orbits, which seemed to have served as 

 the spouts of the vessel. 



The aborigines of the tribe appear to have practised this art from time immemorial : 

 each Gin or wife possesses and usually fabricates her cranial calabash, with which 

 she fetches the domestic supply of water from the pond or river, and suspends it in 

 the hut or on the branch of an adjoining tree. They have no arts of pottery, and 

 nature has not supplied them with vessels from the vegetable kingdom, like those 

 which the cujete or cocoa-nut furnish to more favoured tribes. 



The Scandinavian legends tell of the ancient warriors who quaffed their wine from 

 the skulls of their enemies, but Professor Owen believed the present to be the first 

 instance of the habitual conversion of part of the human skeleton into a drinking 

 vessel. 



On Zoological Nomenclature. By the Rev. Francis Orpen Morris, B.A. 



The author, while approving of the general principles laid down in the Report of 

 a Committee appointed by this Association to consider the above subject (1842), 

 recommends that the Association should carry into effect its own rules, by appointing 

 committees and subcommittees to revise the whole Animal Kingdom, and to deter- 

 mine the names by which each species should finally be denominated. The author 

 further recommends that no two species (even of different genera) should have the 

 same specific name, and that generic names should be invariably taken from the 

 Greek, specific from the Latin languages. He also considers that the second portion 

 of the Report, which contains recommendations for the guidance of zoologists, in 

 future should be made retrospective as well as prospective in its operation. 



On the Southern Limits of the Esquimaux Race in America. 

 By R. G. Latham, 3I.D. 



It is considered that the line of demarcation drawn between the Esquimaux and 

 Indian races of America is far too broad and trenchant. According to the evidence 

 of language two tribes at least may be added to the former races. 



1 . The Chipeivyan of Mackenzie. — This language is not to be confounded with the 

 Chippeway (Ojibbeway), or with any of the numerous Algonkin tongues. Such affi- 

 nities as it has with these are distant and indirect. Its true affinities are with the 

 Esquimaux languages of Cadiack, Oonalashka, the bay of Kenay, and the Sitca or 

 Norfolk Sound. It is known to us by three vocabularies, viz. the Chipewyan of 

 Mackenzie, the Nagail of Mackenzie, and the Hudson's Bay vocabulary of Dobbs. 

 It is spoken across the whole continent. 



2. The Ugalyachmuchtsi of Resanoff. — The locality for this language is the neigh- 

 bourhood of Mount St. Elias in Russian America. On a statement of ResanofPs it 

 has been separated from the neighbouring Esquimaux tongues, so as to cause an 

 appearance of discontinuity in the Esquimaux area. By dealing, however, with the 

 Cadiack, Oonalashka, Kenay and Sitca vocabularies as the representatives of a single 

 language, it may be shown to be Esquimaux. 



Affinities of a more general kind are to be found even further southward. The 

 vocabularies collected by Mr. Tolmie and published by Dr. Scouler in the 'Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Geographical Society,' as far south as the river Columbia, are akin 

 to each other and to the languages north of them. To these might be added two vo- 

 cabularies furnished by Mackenzie, hitherto unplaced, of the Atnah and the Friendly 

 Village languages. The first of these is closely akin to the Noosdalum, the second 

 to the Billechoola vocabularies of Mr. Tolmie. 



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