116 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 62 
HEIGHT OF SKULL 
Next. to the cranial index, the most important feature of the 
vault of the skull is its height, and the Eastern crania, as already 
stated, are characterized by good to pronounced development in this 
direction. The averages of the measurements, and those of the ordi- 
nary height-length and height-breadth indexes, will be found in the 
final tables, but none of these are very satisfactory for showing the 
true value of this dimension, which on the one hand is proportionate 
to the size of the skull, and on the other stands in a more or less com- 
pensatory relation with both the length and breadth of the vault. 
It has long been felt by the writer that some expression of the real 
relative value of the height measurement was required, and this need 
led him ultimately to compare it not with the very variable length or 
breadth of the skull, but with the mean of these two measurements. 
The resultant index, which may be called simply the height index 
of the vault, gives us a new means of comparison and classification 
of the skull and promises to prove much more satisfactory than the 
two older indexes. In the Eastern crania here described, it ranges 
from 83 to almost 90, and the arrangement of the various tribes on 
its basis is harmonious and of considerable interest. The main points 
brought out by the index are as follow: 
In the northernmost tribes the height of the skull is on the whole 
relatively lower than in those farther south. The Munsee and other 
Lenape crania agree with those of the more northerly groups, but 
~ differ somewhat from each other, the skulls in the Heye collection 
being in both sexes perceptibly lower than those of the other Lenape. 
The Staten Island, Manhattan Island, and Long Island skulls are 
again grouped, so far as the more important male skulls are con- 
cerned, and are all high. Of the Virginia collections, the first series, 
from various eastern localities, shows a medium height or slightly 
above; but the Valentine collection, from a more westerly part of 
the state,’ gives in both sexes the highest index of all the groups, 
showing the greatest relative height and indicating that this group 
had been subjected to influences which did not affect equally the 
Indian population of other parts of the state. 
1 For details concerning this collection, see Report of the Exploration of the Hayes Creek Mound, 
Rockbridge County, Virginia, Publ. Valentine Museum, Richmond (ca. 1892). 
