510 



SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. XXXYI. No. 929 



It is an integral part of the medical department 

 of Tulane University of Louisiana, and be- 

 gins its second year of existence with bright 

 prospects. 



TEE ESKIMOS OF COBONATION GULF 



The Stefansson-Anderson expedition to 

 Arctic America was organized in 1908 and 

 sent out under the auspices of the American 

 Museum of Natural History. The expedition 

 was in charge of Mr. Vilhjalmr Stefansson, 

 a graduate of Harvard University, and Dr. 

 R. M. Anderson, of the University of Iowa. 

 Mr. Stefansson devoted his attention to the 

 anthropological work of the expedition, while 

 Dr. Anderson was occupied with the zoolog- 

 ical work. 



Between May 13, 1910, when he first came 

 in contact with the Eskimo of Cape Bexley, 

 and May 18, 1911, when he left the Prince 

 Albert Sound people to return to his base 

 near Cape Parry, Mr. Stefansson saw about 

 a thousand persons, roughly speaking. He 

 took cephalic measurements of 206 of these. 



It appeared both to Mr. Stefansson himself 

 and to the Alaskan and Mackenzie River 

 Eskimo who accompanied him on this journey 

 that the people visited differed considerably 

 in physical characteristics from any Eskimo 

 they had seen previously. Perhaps the most 

 striking feature was that beards were not 

 only more common and more abundant than 

 among the men of the western Eskimo, but 

 also of colors varying from black to a very 

 light brown tending to red. 



The blond tendencies are most prominent 

 in southwestern Victoria Island, but they are 

 met with at least as far east as a hundred 

 miles east of the mouth of the Coppermine 

 River, Coronation Gulf. Although no scien- 

 tific census was taken to determine the exact 

 degree of blondness of every individual seen, 

 Mr. Stefansson feels safe in saying that more 

 than half the individuals seen have eyebrows 

 lighter than black and ranging all the way to 

 a very light brown. The tendency to blond- 

 ness seems less strong in the women than in 

 the men. A few individuals had curly hair 

 and perhaps a dozen had eyes noticeably 



lighter than the ordinary Eskimo brovm, 

 ranging to blue or blue-gray. 



These and other facts of a similar char- 

 acter were observed by Mr. Stefansson and 

 will, in due course, be published by the 

 museum. It is too early to settle definitely 

 on any theory explaining the facts. Of the 

 various explanations that have so far been 

 suggested it seems to Mr. Stefansson that the 

 one open to the fewest serious objections is 

 that of the admixture of a large amount of 

 European blood at some fairly remote period. 

 In this connection the disappearance in the 

 fifteenth or sixteenth centuries of the Norse 

 colony from Greenland suggests itseK as a 

 possible source of the European-like charac- 

 ters. Many things militate against the sup- 

 position that they can be derived from any of 

 the Franklin expeditions of the middle of the 

 last century; one of these is that the only 

 Eskimo of this district seen at close quarters 

 by Franklin himself is described by him in 

 terms which fit very well the blond type found 

 to-day ("Narrative of a Journey to the Shores 

 of the Polar Sea in the Years 1819-1822," by 

 John Franklin, Philadelphia, 1824, p. 316). 

 The purely biologic theories that might ex- 

 plain the facts also seem to have their serious 

 drawbacks. 



EETIREMENT OF PBOFESSOB SENBY 

 SSALEB WILLIAMS 



Professor Henry Shaler Williams, of the 

 department of geology of Cornell University, 

 has retired from active teaching and has been 

 appointed professor of geology, emeritus. In 

 making the appointment the Board of Trustees 

 adopted the following resolution: 



The trustees of Cornell University desire to 

 record their appreciation of the long and varied 

 services of Professor Henry Shaler Williams and 

 their regard for his high personal character. 



A graduate of Yale University in 1868, he was 

 afterwards in the service of that university and 

 professor in the University of Kentucky. His con- 

 nection with Cornell University began in 1879, 

 when he was appointed assistant professor of geol- 

 ogy, becoming later professor of geology and pale- 

 ontology. He also discharged the duties of secre- 

 tary of the faculty and was dean of the general 



