134 THE HUEON RACE AND ITS HEAD-FORM. 



tribal head-form, it is apparent, must admit of perplexing aberrant 

 deviations. Even among the Esquimaux, — isolated seemingly within 

 their native arctic region, and, especially on the eastern side of the 

 continent, cut off from all contact with the true Indian race, — although 

 a markedly typical head-form prevails, examples occur which would 

 puzzle the most experienced craniologist to assign to them any distinct 

 ethnological affinity. 



Such lines of transition from one to another and essentially distinct 

 ethnical group, harmonize with the present tendencies of an all-com- 

 prehensive generalization in natural Jdistory. It is interesting indeed 

 to revert to the views promulgated by one of the most distinguished 

 among the naturalists of this continent at a comparatively recent date; 

 and to compare them with the prevailing tone of scientific opinion at the 

 present day. Professor Agassis, writing in 1853, in his " Provinces 

 of the Animal Kingdom and their relation to Man," thus defines 

 what then appeared to him to be the only alternatives presented to the 

 student of the natural history of man : " Either mankind originated 

 from a common stock, and all the different races with their peculari- 

 ties, in their present distribution, are to be ascribed to subsequent 

 changes : an assumption for which there is no evidence whatever ; 



or what are called human races, down to their specialization as 



nations, are distinct primordial forms of the type of man." Since 

 this alternative was promulgated, the scientific world has learned to 

 treat such a dilemma as one of easy solution ; in view of the compre- 

 hensive pedigree which aims at tracing all animal life, man included, 

 to some common lowly-organized form. The line of reasoning thus 

 pursued has, at any rate, gone far to put an end to the multiplication 

 of races of men, constituting distinct species with no common origin. 

 In man at least, the further minute research is extended, the intervals 

 between seemingly primary typical forms diminish. There is no longer 

 an assumed American man, as distinct from every type in the Eastern 

 Hemisphere as the Catarhine Simiadae of the Old World are from the 

 Platyrhine group of New World monkeys. Wide apart as are such 

 diverse types as those indicated in the primary divisions of Blumenbach, 

 they are no longer isolated by impassable type-forms, but are found to 

 merge in certain directions by slightly varying links, until — as in the 

 Huron or the Esquimaux group, — we learn to recognise examples which 

 defy the limits of typical classification ; or even stand out in striking 

 contrast to some of the most favoured characteristics of the race, with 

 which, nevertheless, they appear to be correctly classified. 



