Mr William (Sturgeon on the Aurora Borealis, 147 



who are always stigmatised as enemies, and branded with a curse ; — 

 the Negroes, who are represented on the monuments as slaves and 

 captives, and share the same anathema as the Scythians ; and lastly, 

 without enumerating the many subordinate subdivisions oF the 

 human i-ace, the Negroid population, which seems to have been nu- 

 merous and well protected. These Negroid inhabitants are obviously 

 a mixed race between the Egyptian and Negro (or rather negress), 

 in which the features of the latter are in preponderance. I have a 

 considerable number of their heads from the catacombs, especially of 

 Thebes. It will be inquired, if Negroes were so much despised in 

 Egypt, if they were in the position of slaves or bondsmen, how does 

 it happen that their embalmed remains are of so frequent occur- 

 rence in the catacombs % This question is answered by a passage 

 in Diodorus, wherein the historian informs us that every child whose 

 father was an Egyptian, was from that circumstance free, and en- 

 joyed the privileges of citizenship even when the mother was a slave. 



But to revert again to the collection of skulls, from which I have 

 been able to derive so many interesting facts, I shall merely add that 

 it contains a fine series of the more distant Caucasian nations, Cir- 

 cassians, Armenians, Arabs, Persians, and Hindoos, with a smaller 

 but characteristic group of Malays, Chinese, Polynesians, and Austra- 

 lians. Yet this large collection does not yet contain a single Esqui- 

 maux or Fuegian head ! The extremes of this continent are not 

 represented. 



Pray make such use of this communication as your studies may 

 suggest, and believe me, dear Sir, very sincerely yours, 



Samuel George Morton.* 

 J. R. Bartlett, Esq. 



A Description of several extraordinary Displays of the Aurora 

 Borealis, as observed at Prestivich,\ during the winter of 

 1848-1849 ; 7vith Theoretical Remarks. By WiLLlAM 

 Sturgeon, Lecturer on Natural and Experimental Philo- 

 sophy, formerly Lecturer at the Honourable East India 

 Company's Military Academy, Addiscombe, and late Editor 

 of the " Annals of Electricity," &c.J Communicated by 

 the Author. 



Having had opportunities of observing several fine displays of the 

 Aurora Borealis since the commencement of last autumn, some of 



* Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. ii., p. 217. 



t Prestwich is a village at the distance of four miles from Manchester, in a 

 north-west direction, on the new road to Bury, from which it is also four miles 

 distant. 



X Read at the Royal Institution, Manchester, March ii8, 1849. 



