July 17, 1879] 



NATURE 



26'g 



features characteristic of Mongolian skulls, the facial 

 bones being more European in type, and the nasi-malar 

 angle only 129 deg. The affinities of the Ainos are at 

 present a matter for speculation. 



T/te Eskimo 



The original inhabitants of the whole of the New 

 World are light brown, or copper-coloured, have straight 

 black hair, and show, amid considerable diversity in 

 detail in particular regions, a far greater resemblance 

 than can be found in any other portion of the world's 

 surface of equal extent. The Eskimo, inhabiting the 

 most northern portion of the continent, stand, in many 

 respects, apart from the others, and are evidently quite as 

 nearly allied to some of the Asiatic races as they are to 

 the Americans. These people call themselves Inntnt, 

 which signifies nothing more than " the men," or " the 

 people." The word JEsgidmaux, as it is rendered in 

 French, or Eskimo, in the Danish method of spelling, now 

 usually adopted in this country, was applied to them by a 

 neighbouring tribe of Indians, and is said to mean " eaters 

 of raw flesh." They dwell in various scattered localities 

 near the northern coast of North America and the great 

 adjacent islands, from Behring's Straits to Greenland, 

 and on the north coast of Labrador. Like the Mongolo- 

 Altaic races of Asia, they lead a nomadic life, modified 

 somewhat by the peculiarities of the surrounding physical 

 conditions, dwelling in tents in summer, and in houses of 

 snow in winter. Agriculture being impossible in such a 

 climate, their only means of subsistence is hunting and 

 fishing. The flesh of seals, cetaceans, and reindeer forms 

 their principal food. In the pursuit of the two former 

 by sea they use boats, which they manage with great 

 dexterity. They train dogs to draw their sledges, but, 

 unlike the Laplanders, do not domesticate the reindeer. 

 They clothe themselves comfortably in dresses of skin, 

 and employ bows, arrows, and harpoons in the chase. 

 In Greenland they have reached a considerable degree of 

 civilisation, but even here, as elsewhere, their numbers 

 seem to be diminishing. 



The Eskimo are generally below the middle size ; their 

 head is large, their legs short, and their hands and feet 

 small ; their complexion is dusky or swarthy. Their hair 

 is black, straight, and coarse, the beard and moustache 

 generally scanty, though sometimes moderately deve- 

 loped. The eyes are small, black, and sparkling ; the 

 elevation of the outer end of the aperture and the vertical 

 fold covering the inner canthus, spoken of before as cha- 

 racteristic of the most typical Mongolian races, have 

 often been observed in them. The nose is usually straight 

 and narrow, and more or less sunken between the pro- 

 minent cheeks. The mouth is large and the lips rather 

 prominent, generally kept somewhat apart. The chin is 

 small and pointed. 



The College Museum contains as many as twenty-seven 

 adult skulls of Eskimos, twenty-four of which are in a 

 condition to form reliable measurements. Of these 

 seventeen appear to be those of males and seven of 

 females. 



A typical Eskimo skull always presents such marked 

 characters that it can never be mistaken for that of any 

 other of the groups of mankind. It is of very large size, 

 especially in relation to the rather small stature of the 

 people, the average capacity of 17 male crania in the 

 collection being 1,546 c.c. or 94'3 c. inches. This is 

 almost exactly the same as the average English (of the 

 lowest class), but it exceeds that of 74 modern Italian 

 males by 71 c.c, and it is above the average of Australian 

 males by as much as 261 c.c. or 16 c. inches. The large 

 size of the brain of all hyperborean races, Lapps as well 

 as Eskimo, seems not necessarily to be connected with 

 intellectual development, but may have some other ex- 

 planation not at present quite apparent. The ne.xt dis- 

 tinctive character of the Eskimo skuU is its great length 



and narrowness, especially in the upper part. The base 

 is fairly broad, and the mastoid processes are weU deve- 

 loped ; but, instead of expanding upwards to the parietal 

 region, it narrows, and, towards the median line above, 

 contracts so rapidly that the upper part of the skull has 

 the form of the roof of a house. Measurements of various 

 series of Eskimo skulls give remarkably uniform results 

 as regards the latitudinal index, the average being from 

 7r2 to 71 4, so that it may be considered as perfectly 

 established, that the Eskimo are among the most dolicho- 

 cephalic of races. The female skulls are somewhat 

 broader than the male. The index of height is somewhat 

 greater than that of breadth, averaging 73-5. The cranial 

 sutures are very simple ; and among the specimens ex- 

 amined there is no case of metopism or persistence of the 

 frontal suture, nor is there any case of the squamosal 

 bone meeting the frontal at the pterion. 



The whole face is large, both high and broad ; the 

 forehead is flat, the glabella little developed ; the orbits 

 are round, and the malar bones of great size and very 

 prominent, giving a nasi-malar angle of 144 deg. The nasal 

 bones are small and narrow, often coming to a point at 

 their upper ends, and the whole aperture is very long 

 and narrow. The Eskimo are, in fact, the most leptOrhine 

 of all races ; the average nasal index of the 17 male 

 skulls before spoken of, being only 42'2, the average of 

 European crania being about 47, and that of Australians 

 56. The projection of the jaw is moderate, giving an 

 alveolar index of loO'S, which brings them into the 

 mesognathous category, with an inclination towards 

 prognathism. The arch formed by the series of teeth is 

 remarkably short, broad, and round. The teeth are 

 small, and generally become worn down to stumps as life 

 advances. 



Two out of the three Eskimo skeletons in the Museum 

 possess one more than the usual number of vertebrae, the 

 additional one being interposed between the dorsal and 

 lumbar series, and partaking of the character of both. 

 The brim of the pelvis is remarkably wide transversely, 

 and thus, as also in the limbs, they deviate widely from 

 the negro type : for example, the humero-radial index, 

 which in the Andamanese is as high as 82, in Negroes 79, 

 in AustraUans 77, and in Europeans 74, does not exceed 

 7r3 in either of the three skeletons, the average being 

 7I-I. 



Dr. Barnard Davis has shown that the special pecu- 

 liarities of the Eskimo skull are most marked in Green- 

 land ; there is also good evidence that the Eskimo have 

 migrated from the west towards the east, and did not 

 reach Greenland, at all events in its southern parts, until 

 the fourteenth century. Their affinities, moreover, as 

 shown by physical characters, are more with the in- 

 habitants of North-Eastern Asia than with the American 

 Indians, and it is not at all improbable that they are 

 derived from the same stock as the Japanese. In this 

 case the peculiarities by which the Eskimo are differen- 

 tiated from the Asiatic Mongolians cannot have been 

 developed by crossing with other nations, on account of 

 their complete isolation, but must be attributed to those 

 gradual modifications, produced by causes at present little 

 understood, by which most of the striking variations we 

 have met with in the human species have been brought 

 about ; modifications more strongly expressed the more 

 completely isolated the race has become, and the further 

 removed from its original centre of distribution. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Dunsink Observatory, Dublin. — The third 

 part of " Astronomical Observations and Researches 

 made at Dunsink, the Observatory of Trinity College, 

 Dublin," has been published by Dr. Ball. It contains 

 four papers, the first by the previous director. Dr. 

 Brunnoiv, presenting a discussion of observations of the 



