314 FORMS OF THE SKULL. 



The head of an American, from an Indian burial-place 

 on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, about 40° north 

 latitude, Tab. 38. presents a conformation approaching more 

 to the Caucasian than to the Mongolian. In a race, of 

 which the characters are intermediate between two others, 

 we may reasonably expect that some individuals will ap- 

 proximate to one, and some to the other variety. 



TheEskimaux* and the Greenlanders f form a transi- 

 tion from the American to the Mongolian variety : they 

 have broad cheek-bones, large jaws and face, and small 

 flattened nose. The size of the head altogether, and par- 

 ticularly the cranium. Is larger In the latter than in the 

 former. The figures of Blumenbach correspond to the 

 best descriptions of these people, in which the largeness of 

 their heads is noticed. 



The head of an ancient Aturian, brought by Humboldt J 

 from the subterranean excavations In the granite rocks at 



* Tab. 24 and 25 are engravings of two Eskimaux crania from the 

 Danish colony of Nain on the coast of Labrador. The strong characters of 

 these crania, and the marked affinity which they exhibit to the American and 

 Mongolian races, concur with all accurate descriptions of the physical charac- 

 ters of the people in refuting the strange opinion of Robertson {Hist, of 

 America; v. 2. p. 40), that the Eskimaux are descendants from the Normans. 

 Blumenbach, Dec 3. p. 8 — 10. 



A similar skull from Hond Eyland (Dog's Island), near Disko, in Baffin's 

 Bay, is described by Win slow, Mem. de I'' Acad, des Sciences, 1722. 



t The heads of a Greenland man and woman are represented in tab. 36 

 and 37 : they came from the Danish colony Godhavn, on the west coast of 

 Greenland. " They are large, and the cranium in particular is ample, and 

 elongated posteriorly. The bone is remarkably thin and light, in proportion 

 to the size. The orbits are large ; the nasal bones long but very narrow." 

 Ibid. Dec. 4. p. 12. 



J Blumenbach, Dec. 5. tab. 46. In one of the caverns visited by this 

 indefatigable and enlightened traveller, there were the remains of six hundred 

 bodies, each of which was contained in a basket or bag. These remains con- 

 sisted either of the bones alone, of their natural white colour, or reddened by 

 annatto, or of the same preserved in tlie way of mummies, with a mixture of 

 bitumen and leaves. There were, moreover, sarcophaguscs of unbaked clay, 

 five feet long and three wide, painted with figures of crocodiles, and full of 

 bones. The situation of these caverns is 5° 39 N. lat. 51° W. long, from 

 Fcrro. p. 14. 



