52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 33 
CoNCLUSION 
The inevitable conclusion from the above examination, which was 
conducted with a hope that the specimen might prove beyond doubt 
an ancient one, since such a discovery would be of the greatest impor- 
tance to American and even to general anthropology, is, as expressed 
before, that the Lansing skeleton is practically identical with the 
typical male skeleton of a large majority of the present Indians of 
the Middle and the Eastern states. Any assumption that it is many 
thousands of years old, dating from a past geological period, would 
carry with it not only the comparatively easily acceptable assump- 
tion of so early an existence of man on this continent, but also the 
very far-reaching and far more difficult conclusions that this man was 
physically identical with the Indian of the present time, and that 
his physical characteristics during all the thousands of years assumed 
to have passed have undergone absolutely no important modification. 
In order to present further evidence in support of the view here 
taken the writer has selected from the collection in the National 
Museum several modern male adult crania of individuals belonging to 
tribes that occupy or occupied sections not far distant from that in 
which the Lansing skeleton was found. The measurements of these 
skulls, contrasted with those of the Lansing cranium, are appended, 
with an illustration (figure 7). The similarities are very apparent. 
If the Lansing skull differs in any way from the others, it is in its 
somewhat better development, particularly over the frontal region. 
But the type of the skulls is the same. It would have been well to 
include some Potawatomi and Kickapoo crania, but these tribes are 
poorly represented in our cranial collections. 
Comparative measurements of the Lansing skull and the skulls of other Plains 
Indians 
Ponca Kaw Pawnee Pawnee 
Lansing | skull (796, | skull (152, | skull (550, | skull (531, 
skull. National | National | National | National 
Museum). | Museum). | Museum). | Museum). 
Diameter antero-posterior maximum 
(glabella-occipital) ......centimeters. . 18.9 18. 85 18.4 18.9 18.7 
Diameter lateral maximum .....-. do... 13.9 eae 13.6 14. 05 13.9 
Basion-bregma height ............. doen. a14.0 14.0 13.75 13.4 BBY: 
Cephalictindex:. J: jacesces sescesiseecaee 73.5 75.3 73.9 74.8 74.3 
Diameterfrontalminimum.centimeters.. 9.4 9.0 9.2 9.0 8.9 
Diameter frontal maximum (along coro- 
MAeSUtUTe) eee ese se cece centimeters... 11.3 11.5 11.6 eva 11.1 
Nasion-opisthion arc....... centimeters. . 37.8 37.7 36.6 38.1 35.2 
Circumference maximum (above the 
MiG FES) hace eee sae Sees centimeters. . 52.0 52.0 51.2 52.3 51.8 
Thickness of left parietal below tem- 
poral ridge... 2 see es-s-= millimeters... 4-5 4-6 4-5 44.5 3. 5-4. 5 
Cranial capacity..... cubic centimeters. . (0) 1, 5380 1, 445 1,580 1, 480 
« Approximate. > Between 1,525 and 1,550 cubic centimeters (calculated). 
