242 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IX ALASKA 



[ETU. ANN. 40 



The great size of the Eskimo face is especially apparent in the 

 relations of the mean diameter of the face to stature ; it is in this 

 respect no less than 12 per cent in excess of that of the whites in the 

 males and 12.5 per cent in the females. 96 



Lower facial breadth. — Due to the great development of the mas- 

 seter muscles and the consequent frequent lesser or greater eversion 

 of the angles of the lower jaw, the bigonial diameter in the Eskimo 

 is very large, particularly when taken in relation to stature, and in 

 such relation it looms especially large in the females. Compared 

 with the old American whites, the bigonial breadth in its relation to 

 stature is higher in the Eskimo males by 15.5 per cent, in the Eskimo 

 females by 17.7 per cent. And measurements of Eskimo lower jaws 

 in general show that this breadth in the western contingents is not 

 exceptional 



Lower Facial Breadth 



Western Eskimo (St. 

 Lawrence Island) 



Old Americans 



Diameter bigonial 



Female vs. male 



Percentage relation to stature 



Percentage relation to breadth of face 



Mala Females 



11. 7S 11. 18 



9/ h 9 



7. 21 7. 39 



SO 79. 5 



Males Females 



10. 63 9. 84 



9$. 6 

 6. 09 6. 08 



76. 7 75. S 



The nose. — The nose of the western Eskimo promises to be of 

 much importance in the study of Eskimo origins in general. No- 

 where in this region is it like the nose of the northern or north- 

 eastern groups. It is decidedly broader. Its breadth is intermediary 

 between that of the Alaska and other Indians and that of the north- 

 ern and northeastern Eskimo, connecting with both, and these charac- 

 teristics are so generalized throughout western Alaska and the Bering 

 Sea islands that they can not possibly be attributed to Indian or 

 other admixture. Nor can this relatively broad nose of the western 

 Eskimo be well attributed to environmental effects, i. e., to a broaden- 

 ing of a formerly narrow nose through climatic conditions. There 

 do not appear to be any such conditions. The only rational explana- 

 tion seems to be that this is the more original condition of the 

 Eskimo nose, and that the northern and northeastern narrowness 

 is a later derivation. More may be said on this point when we 

 come to consider the skeletal remains. 



06 A word of slight caution is due hero. In all these cases the proper way would be to 

 compare the Eskimo with whites of same mean stature. But we have no such whites 

 available. As it is the comparisons must be taken merely as approximations, but they 

 are so close approximations that the substance of the conclusions is probably correct. 



