ILLUSTRATIONS OF CERTAIN BRITISH SKULL FORMS. 127 
and partly to the Calciferous or Quebec Series. They will be 
described, consequently, under those divisions. 
[The present series of papers on the Minerals and Geology of 
Canada will be concluded in two other articles. These will comprise a 
review of our Silurian and higher strata, with many figures of cha- 
racteristic fossils, sections, &c., and a brief recapitulatory sketch of 
the geology of the Province generally. | 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CERTAIN 
ANCIENT BRITISH SKULL FORMS. 
BY DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., 
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND ENGLISH LITERATURE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO. 
During a recent visit to Washington, I availed myself of the 
facilities afforded me by Professor Henry, the learned Secretary of 
the Smithsonian Institution, to examine with minute care the eth- 
nological collections preserved there, including those formed by the 
United States Exploring Expedition ; and especially a highly inter- 
esting collection of human erania. The latter includes those of 
Esquimaux and Tchuktchi, a number of compressed and greatly 
distorted Chinook and other Flathead skulls, as well as examples of 
those of other Indian tribes, both of North and South America ; 
and of Fiji, Kanaka, and other Pacific islanders. On my return I 
spent a short time in Philadelphia chiefly for the purpose of renewed 
study of the valuable materials of the Mortonian collection; and 
while there enjoyed the opportunity of examining, in company 
with Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, a series of 125 Esquimaux crania obtained 
by Dr. Hayes during his Arctic Journey of 1854. 
The materials for craniological investigation which such collections 
supply can scarcely be surpassed in some of their departments ; and 
invite to very diverse researches by the illustrations they are calculated 
to afford. It chanced, however, that my attention had been recently 
recalled to an old subject of speculation, relative to the possible 
modification of the forms of ancient British crania by some of the 
very causes which so materially alter those of many American tribes ; 
and this accordingly influenced me in part, in the notes I made of the 
collections both at Washington and Philadelphia; and will now give 
direction to some remarks bearing on the same inquiry. 
