llUDI.U'KAj 



A STRAXGK GROUP OF ESKIMO 



323 



Physical Characteristics 



The skull. — The most noteworthy feature about the Igloo remains 

 is the marked distinctiveness of the skull. This strikes the observer 

 at the first sight of the specimens, and the impression is only strength- 

 ened by detail examination. The skulls are very narrow, long, and 

 high. They differ plainly from anything except occasional indi- 

 vidual specimens, either about Barrow or along the rest of the west 

 coast of Alaska, with the possible exception of a few groups of 

 Seward Peninsula. They recall strongly the crania of Labrador and 

 south Greenland. It is the Labrador-Greenland type throughout, 

 men, women, and even the two children. It is a group outside of the 

 range of local variation. It is a strange Eskimo group, either de- 

 veloped here in former times as it developed in Greenland and 

 Labrador, and possibly the Seward Peninsula, or one that had come 

 here from places where such type had already been realized. 



The following data (the individual measurements will appear in a 

 later number of the Catalogue of Crania) show the differences be- 

 tween the Igloo and the surface material, the latter both of the Van 

 Valin and of the author's collections, and the valuable Stefansson 

 material, now at the American Museum, from Point Barrow. They 

 need but little comment. They show clearly on one hand the wholly 

 Eskimo nature of the Igloo skulls, and on the other their distinct- 

 ness from those of the later burials, both of Barrow and Point Bar- 

 row. The vault especially is characteristic — narrow, long, high, more 

 or less keel-shaped. The face in general is much more alike in the 

 three groups; nevertheless its absolute height and breadth in the 

 Igloo series are slightly smaller than in the other two, and there 

 are minor differences in the orbits and the palate. 



Eskimo Crania, Barkow and Vicinity 



Vault: 



Length maximum 

 Breadth maxi- 

 mum 



Basion - bregma 



height 



Cranial index 



Height-breadth 



index 



Mean height index 

 Cranial module. . 



Old Igloos 



Males 

 (27) 



19. 25 

 13.30 



14. 02 

 69. 1 



105. 5 

 86. 2 



15. 52 



Females 



(25) 



18. 11 



12. 72 



13. 21 

 70.2 



104.6 

 86. 4 

 14 72 



Surface burials, Barrow 



Mai 



(37) 



18. 90 



13.73 



13. 78 

 72.6 



99. 6 

 84-6 

 15. 46 



Females 

 (30) 



17. 77 



13.23 



12.97 

 74.5 



98. 1 



82. 9 

 14. 66 



Surface burials, Point 

 Barrow 



M ales 

 (49) 



18.74 

 13. 84 



13. 78 



73. 9 



99. 6 



84- 7 

 15. 44 



Females 

 (52) 



17. 91 



13.32 



13.08 

 74.4 



97.8 

 83. 4 

 14.75 



