46 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 33 
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. 
XITII.—THE TRENTON FEMUR 
The specimen known as the Trenton femur is a portion of a human 
thigh bone discovered in December, 1899, 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 74 feet (2.286 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 H of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science.t. The detailed account of the find, which 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. P 
