IV METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY 227 



the skull wide and high. Such people extend 

 from Patagonia to Mexico, and much farther north 

 along the west coast. In the main a race of 

 hunters, they had nevertheless, at the time of the 

 discovery of the Americas, attained a remarkable 

 degree of civilization in some localities. They had 

 domesticated ruminants, and not only practised 

 agriculture, but had learned the value of irriga- 

 tion. They manufactured textile fabrics, were 

 masters of the potter's art, and knew how to erect 

 massive buildings of stone. They understood 

 the working of the precious, though not of the use- 

 ful, metals ; l and had even attained to a rude kind 

 of hieroglyphic, or picture, writing. The Ameri- 

 cans not only employ the bow and arrow, but, like 

 some Amphinesians, the blow-pipe, as offensive 

 weapons : but I am not aware that the outrigger 

 canoe has ever been observed among them. 



I have reason to suspect that some of the 

 Fuegian tribes differ cranially from the typical 

 Americans; 2 and the Northern and Eastern 

 American tribes have longer skulls than their 

 Southern compatriots. But the ESQUIMAUX, who 

 roam on the desolate and ice-bound coast of Arctic 

 America, certainly present us with a new stock. 

 The Esquimaux (among whom the Greenlanders are 

 included), in fact, though they share the straight 



P With the exception of copper and hronze. 1894.] 



[ 3 A suspicion subsequently verified. See a memoir on 



American Skulls, Journal of Anatomy and Physio! ogr. Vol. 16, 



189 U 



