Apeil 17, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



625 



Dwellers and Nahuan (Toltec, Chichimec, 

 Aztec) peoples. The region thus bounded ex- 

 tends uninterruptedly from Utah and Colorado 

 to the Mexican states of Morelos and Guer- 

 rero, and in it live at present a little over 

 forty tribes or distinct groups of Indians. 

 About nine tenths of all these peoples were 

 visited on the five expeditions and examined; 

 all the measurements and data secured are 

 being studied, but to arrive at detailed results 

 will require several years. 



What can now be safely stated is: (1) All 

 the ancient as well as the modern peoples 

 in the region mentioned belong to three phys- 

 ical types, and these types are identical with 

 those widely represented in all directions out- 

 side of this region; and (2) a very large 

 majority of the present peoples examined 

 are physically identical with the prehistoric 

 inhabitants of these same districts (so far as 

 could be ascertained from the osteological 

 material recovered) ; the prehistoric remains 

 (osteological) show no type that is not repre- 

 sented somewhere in the region covered to-day, 

 and there is no type among the living tribes 

 not represented among the ancient ones. 



The visit of so large a number of tribes, 

 as well as the search for skeletal remnants of 

 the extinct peoples, afforded a very good op- 

 portunity for general ethnological and arch- 

 eological observations, the substance of which 

 can be stated as follows : The Mexican Indians 

 visited, with the exception of the Huichols and 

 Tarahumares, are in their mode of life and 

 habits far more like the whites about them 

 than is the case with our Indians of the south- 

 west; nevertheless, the Mexican tribes pre- 

 serve much that would be of value to the 

 ethnologist. Dr. Hrdlicka's exploration in 

 northern Jalisco and in Zacatecas resulted in 

 the discovery of the ruins of eleven good- 

 sized pueblos or towns, the excavations at one 

 of which showed that its inhabitants had 

 reached a comparatively high grade of culture. 

 The pueblo and cliff ruins of our southwest 

 may be compared to a head which connects by 

 a long narrow neck running through Cora 

 Grande in Arizona, Coras Grande in Mexico, 

 Zape in Mexico and La Quemada in Zacatecas, 

 with a large body of ruins which begin in 



southern Zacatecas and Jalisco and extend 

 through all the southern part of Mexico to 

 Guatemala and Central America. La Quemada 

 was found to be above all a fort, in all prob- 

 ability the most representative stone-built 

 native fort in North America. 



In Zacatecas Dr. Hrdlicka discovered a 

 colony of Tlascaltecs, transplanted hither by 

 the Spaniards in the seventeenth and eight- 

 eenth centuries ; and further south he found 

 two villages still occupied by the remnants of 

 the ancient Chichimecs of Teul. South of 

 Juchipilla, in Zacatecas, is located a perfect 

 cliff-dwelling, probably the most southern one 

 in existence. This particular ruin, known 

 under the name of ' Las Ventanas ' (the win- 

 dows), has been visited by at least one Ameri- 

 can before, namely, by Miss Britton. 



James E. Lough, 



Secretary. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. SECTION OF 

 ASTRONOMY, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 



At the meeting of the section on March 

 2, Professor Wm. Hallock read a paper on 

 the ' Measurement of the Altitude of Mount 

 Whitney, California, by Boiling-point De- 

 terminations.' 



At the time of the ascent of Mount Whit- 

 ney last summer by the party under Mr. 

 Harrington Putnam, apparatus was taken to 

 the top, and a determination of the boiling 

 point was made at ten o'clock on August 2.3. 

 The observed boiling point was 186°.47. Ap- 

 plying the instrumental corrections and re- 

 ducing this by the Smithsonian tables, the 

 corresponding barometric pressure was IY.70 

 inches. The Weather Bureau kindly fur- 

 nished the barometric pressure, temperature 

 and vapor tension for Independence, Call- 

 fornia, for that morning. They were: bar- 

 ometric pressure, 25.93 inches ; temperature, 

 TS".©, vapor tension, 0.110 feet. Substi- 

 tuting these values in the formula given by 

 Bigelow on page 490 of the second volume 

 of the annual report of the ' Chief of the 

 Weather Bureau ' for 1898-99, a difference 

 in altitude between Independence and Mount 

 Whitney of 10,633 feet results. Inasmuch as 

 this determination was made five feet below 



