Aboriginal Race of America. 145 
so much do the individuals of this race resemble each other, 
notwithstanding their immense geographical distribution, and 
those differences of climate which embrace the extremes of 
heat and cold. The half-clad Fuegian, shrinking from his 
dreary winter, has the same characteristic lineaments, though 
in an exaggerated degree, as the Indians of the tropical 
plains ; and these again resemble the tribes which inhabit 
the region west of the Rocky Mountains, those of the great 
valley of the Mississippi, and those again which skirt the 
Esquimaux on the north. All possess alike the long, lank, 
black hair, the brown or cinnamon-coloured skin, the heavy 
brow, the dull and sleepy eye, the full and compressed lips, 
and the salient but dilated nose. These traits, moreover, are 
equally common to the savage and civilized nations ; whether 
they inhabit the margins of rivers and feed on fish, or rove 
the forest and subsist on the spoils of the chase. 
It cannot be questioned that physical diversities do occur, 
equally singular and inexplicable, as seen in different shades 
of colour, varying from a fair tint to a complexion almost 
black ; and this, too, under circumstances in which climate can 
have little or no influence. So, also, in reference to stature, 
the differences are remarkable in entire tribes which, more- 
over, are geographically proximate to each other. These 
facts, however, are mere exceptions to a general rule, and do 
not alter the peculiar physiognomy of the Indian, which is as 
undeviatingly characteristic as that of the Negro; for whe- 
ther we see him in the athletic Charib or the stunted Chayma, 
in the dark Californian or the fair Borroa, he is an Indian 
still, and cannot be mistaken for a being of any other race. 
The same conformity of organization is not less obvious in 
the osteological structure of these people, as seen in the 
squared or rounded head, the flattened or vertical occiput, the 
high cheek-bones, the ponderous maxille, the large quadran- 
gular orbits, and the low receding forehead. I have had op- 
portunity to compare nearly four hundred crania, derived 
- from tribes inhabiting almost every region of both Americas, 
and have been astonished to find how the preceding charac- 
ters, in greater or less degree, pervade them all. 
This remark is equally applicable to the ancient and mo- 
