46 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BOLL. 88 



in at least one important character, from the rest of the whites on 

 one side, and in all features from all the Indians of whom there is 

 any knowledge, on the other. In view of these facts, the conclusion 

 is unavoidable that close kinship exists between the European and the 

 New Jersey specimens. 



Granted that the western European and the Trenton skulls referred 

 to proceed from practically the same people, we have not yet solved 

 their chronological relation. A type of so pronounced character- 

 istics is probably old, and may be very ancient; and as its repre- 

 sentatives have been found on opposite sides of the Atlantic ocean, 

 which might have been traversed accidentally or otherwise thou- 

 sands of years ago, the possibility that the American representatives 

 of that type may be much more ancient than those found in European 

 burials can not be excluded. However, the probabilities are against 

 the ancient origin of the crania. The detailed records of New Jer- 

 sey show that, while the Delaware valley was settled to a large 

 extent by Swedes, there were also some immigrants from Holland, 

 among whom were very likely individuals of the low cranial type. 

 The deposits in which the Burlington County and the River- 

 view Cemetery skulls were found do not preclude comparatively 

 recent burials. On the whole, it seems safer and more in line with 

 the known evidence to regard the two low Trenton crania as of rela- 

 tively modern and European origin than as representatives of Qua- 

 ternary Americans. 



XIII. THE TRENTON FEMUR 



The specimen known as the Trenton femur is a portion of a human 

 thigh bone discovered in December, 1890, by Mr. E. Volk, under the 

 employ of Prof. F. W. Putnam, in a railroad cut within the limits of 

 the city of Trenton. The bone lay 7 feet (2.280 meters) below the 

 surface, in sand, under an apparently undisturbed deposit of glacial 

 gravel, and was photographed in situ. Shortly after its discovery 

 Professor Putnam kindly submitted the specimen to the writer for 

 examination, and soon thereafter reported on it in a preliminary way 

 before section II of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. The detailed account of the find, w r hich Professor Putnam 

 has been preparing, has not yet been published. The antiquity of 

 this specimen must rest on the geological evidence alone. The bone 

 is undoubtedly part of a human femur, from a little below the tro- 

 chanters. It shows ordinary dimensions, with a flattening at its 

 upper end such as occurs with especial frequency in Indians, but 



" Winter meeting of the section, at New Haven ; there Is no published report of this 

 meeting. 



