HRDLICK A] SKELETAL REMAINS 9% 
sippi, burying its dead in low circular mounds, the upper layers of 
which in numerous cases were hardened by fire, offers one of the most 
interesting problems to American anthropologists, largely because 
everything points to the fact that these low cranial shapes are com- 
paratively recent phenomena and not occurrences of geological antiq- 
uity. Additional systematic exploration on a large scale of the 
mounds in the Central states is very much to be desired in this 
connection. 
(7) The size of the Nebraska skulls and the thickness of bone (see 
detailed examination) are in no way exceptional when compared 
with similar dimensions in skulls of Indians. The thickness of the 
parietal bone exceeded in no case at its maximum 7 mm. and was 
mostly a little below this. Professor Barbour in his paper in the 
Records of the Past mentions that the wall of one of the broken 
skulls measured 9 mm. in thickness, but this measurement must have 
been taken on a bone other than the parietal. None of the fragments 
of the latter bone that passed under the writer’s observation approxi- 
mated such a dimension; but even if a very thick skull had coexisted 
with the others, the fact would justify no conclusion concerning the 
antiquity of the specimen. -.Thick Indian crania of a very moderate 
antiquity are very common in Florida and certain parts of Mexico, 
and occur also in other parts of the country. 
(7) The long bones recovered from the mound show absolutely 
no type differences or racial distinction at the different levels, and 
in many of their characteristics approximate so clesely to the cor- 
responding bones in the Indian that their identification as Indian 
is permissible. Of particular value for this identification are the 
thickness and shape at the middle of the humeri,* and here is found 
the shght relative thickness of the bone as well as the predomi- 
nance of the plano-convex shape, both characteristic of the Indian. 
The platymery of the femora points in the same direction. The 
tibiz are stronger and less platyenemic than on an average in the 
Indian, but were by no means unequaled among the Plains Indians 
who lived largely by the chase. The stature of the group of people 
represented in the Gilder mound, estimated from the long bones, 
was nearly 6 feet in the males, which is not uncommon also among 
the Sioux and other of the Plains hunters. Examination of the parts 
of the skeleton besides the skull furnishes substantial evidence that 
the bones have in general much more affinity with those of the Indian 
than with those of any other people. Speculation as to what par- 
ticular tribe of Indians this group belonged would probably be 
fruitless, and is really not of great importance. The Omaha, it is 
«A monograph showing in detail the pronounced differences in these bones between the 
white, negro, and Indian races is under preparation by the writer. 
34538—No, 38—07——_7 
