182 FOSSIL MEN. 



discovery of facts of this kind may have led to the 

 practice. 



Dr. Wilson, of Toronto., has devoted much study to 

 American skulls, and the American race is to form our 

 term of comparison in this chapter. We may begin 

 therefore with his description of the typical head of 

 Eastern America. It is short and broad, or somewhat 

 elongated, with largely developed maxillaries and 

 zygomata, prominent superciliary ridges, a compari- 

 tively narrow and poorly developed frontal region, and 

 flattened or truncated occiput, great facial breadth, 

 both at the cheek-bones and in the square massive 

 lower law, and prominence in the nasal bones. To 

 this we may add as a consequence of the widening of 

 the face, a somewhat elongated or less round form of 

 the orbits, and that in many tribes the occiput is by 

 no means flattened. According to the same careful 

 observer, the Esquimaux of North America have long 

 heads, resembling in form those of the Tschuktchi of 

 North Asia, and also those of the northern tribes of 

 Indians, differing, however, from the proper Indian 

 type in smaller nasal bones and more projecting jaws. 

 In regard to mere length of head, the American 

 Indians proper divide themselves into two groups: 

 the Algonquin, Iroquois, and Lenape races, extending 

 across the northern and eastern regions, being long- 

 headed; and the southern and south-western races, 

 including the mound-builders, being short-headed. 

 The two types graduate into each other, and among 

 long-headed tribes occasional short heads occur; while 



