SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 421 
It would seem that the whole of the North-West Coast conventional art is 
essentially a painting art. The tapering of the lines of one unit towards the 
points of junction with another unit would seem to be most easily and naturally 
produced by a brush technique, whereas there seems no natural means for its 
development in carving. The construction of painted and carved designs is 
essentially the same; and it would seem that the latter is a development from 
the former. 
Carving, on account of its wide distribution, is supposed to have been the 
first art developed; but this is probably true only of realistic representations 
and not of the conventional art. 
20. Dr. H. M. Am1.—Recent Discoveries in Prehistory. 
Monday, August 11. 
21, Mr. Haruan I. Smrtu.—Trephined Aboriginal Skulls from British 
Columbia and Washington. 
Two recently discovered specimens extend our knowledge of the distribution 
of trephined aboriginal skulls, and also of a rare narrow type of skull in British 
Columbia and Washington. 
These skulls were found in the large shell-heap along the west side of 
Boundary Bay, about twenty miles to the south of Vancouver. One of the 
skulls is of a rare narrow type found in the Eburne shell-heap, the other of a 
wide type common to the region in both prehistoric and modern times. 
These specimens were collected for the Victcria Memorial Museum, Ottawa— 
the National Museum of Canada. 
The antiquity of this trephining and the two types of skulls is considerable. 
The heap at Eburne is known to have existed in 1497 or earlier, as in 1898 we 
counted over 400 rings of annual growth on a stump standing on the heap. 
As the outer part of the stump had been burned there must have been more 
rings, indicating a greater age. There were many large trees and stumps on 
the heap. The skeletons were below layers continuing unbroken under these 
stumps. 
22. Mr. L. H. Duptey Buxton.—Skulls from the Valley of Mezico. 
The skulls under consideration include a series of ‘ Toltec’ skulls excavated 
at Azcapotzaleo, near Mexico City, and two series in the Museum in Mexico 
City which are said to be Aztec and Tarahumare respectively. These two latter 
series resemble one another closely, but the former show a greater degree of 
mixture. The Toltec skulls differ from them in many points, and it seems 
impossible that they can belong to the same people. On other grounds it seems 
probable that the Toltecs are of Nahua affinities, and therefore should be of 
similar physique, although this point is much disputed by archeologists. The 
Toltec skulls seem to be more closely allied to the Maya type. The same type, 
however, occurs in ancient crania excavated in Mexico by Hamy, and it is 
possible that there may have survived in the Valley of Mexico an older type 
akin to the people of the south, and differing from the people of the north. 
If, however, the remains at Azcapotzalco are accepted as genuine remains of 
the Toltec people, then the conclusion seems necessary that the latter tribe were 
physically at least akin to the Mayas. 
23. Prof. C. G. Ssricman, F.R.S.—A Pseudo-Mongolian Type in 
Central Africa. 
24, Miss Marcarer Mrap.—Rank in Polynesia. 
The concept of rank is found throughout the social organisation of the 
Polynesian islands, although there are many important differences in the way 
this widely distributed idea has been modified and re-interpreted. An analysis 
of the idea of rank as found in Samoa, Hawaii, and New Zealand shows that, 
while this idea of a sacred hereditary group, protected by a multitude of taboos, 
