158 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



American race ... In regard to the low forehead, these ancient 

 crania show not merely a conformity with those of the American 

 race, but some of them exhibit this feature in an excessive degree, 

 extending to a complete disappearance of the forehead. 



''It is then proved, in the second place, that the people, who in 

 that remote time inhabited this part of the new world, were of the 

 same race as those who occupied tliis country at the time of the 

 Conquest." 



In the following paragraph Lund expresses the opinion that this 

 lowness of the forehead is a natural feature, not due to artificial 

 deformation, and that it offers an explanation of the figures with 

 similar low foreheads sculptured on some ancient American monu- 

 ments. He then proceeds : 



' ' The bones of the skeletons belonged to individuals of both sexes ; 

 they were of ordinary size; nevertheless two among those of the 

 males presented dimensions above the ordinary." 



In conclusion, Lund expresses a rather poor opinion of the prob- 

 able mental characteristics of the people from whom the remains 

 came; tliis conclusion, he says, is ''corroborated by an instrument of 

 the most imperfect construction found with the bones. This instru- 

 ment consists simply of a heinispheric stone of amphibole, 10 inches 

 in circumference and smooth on the plane surface, which evidently 

 served for crushing seeds or other hard substances." 



Besides the bones spoken of above, Lund mentions the finds of 

 some human osseous remains, "whose characteristics were also those 

 of fossil bones," in two other of the Minas Geraes caves. "The bones 

 were deprived of nearly all the gelatinous parts, and in consequence 

 were very friable and white in fractur'e. Unfortunately, they were 

 found isolated and without being accompanied by the bones of other 

 animals, so that the principal question raised by these finds, that of 

 man's antiquity, remains undecided; nevertheless, the specimens 

 corroborate the conclusions relative to the prolonged existence of 

 man in this part of the world." 



The main parts of the above letter were published in Philadelphia 

 in 1845 and were quoted more or less extensively during the early 

 forties, in other publications.^ 



The subsequent letter of Lund to the Institute (1844) contains less 

 information than the one cited above, but there are several points of 

 some importance. The first concerns the mineralization of the various 

 bones. Lund's words in regard to this point are: 



"The advanced decomposition of the [animal] bones contained in 

 this deposit [evidently referring to the cave of Sumidouro] showed 



1 strain, Isaac G., Extract of a letter giving the synopsis of the translation, bj' himself, of a letter from 

 Doctor Lund, R. S. A., Copenhagen, to the Historical and Geographical Society of Brazil; in Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Phila., n, 1844-5, Phila., 1846, pp. 11-13. 



