PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NATIVE TRIBES, OF CANADA. 353- 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



SOME PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NATIVE TRIBES OF 



CANADA. 



The address of the Vice-President of the Anthropological Section, Dr. Dan- 

 iel Wilson, F. R.S.E. , was read in his absence in Germany, by Prof. Otis Mason,, 

 of Washington, the Secretary. The subject was "Some Physical Characteristics 

 of Native Tribes of Canada." The following is a summary: 



In inviting attention to some of the physical characteristics which distinguish 

 certain native races of the Dominion, and especially to the significance of certain: 

 typical head-forms it is important to keep in view the prevalence throughout the 

 American continent of various artificial modifications of skull-forms. This strange 

 custom is probably at the present tim.e carried on more systematically among the 

 different tribes of Flathead Indians of British Columbia than in any other region. 

 The practice of moulding the human head into abnormal forms has been found 

 aUke among the civilized races of Peru, the ancient lettered architects of Central 

 America and Mexico, and among barbarous tribes both to the east and west of 

 the Rocky Mountains. Among the Chinooks and other Flathead tribes of this 

 continent, and also, I believe among the ancient builder-races of Yucatan and 

 Peru, certain head-forms were recognized as an attribute of the ruling cast. One 

 of the first examples of mediaeval compressed crania, which attracted special at- 

 tention in Europe was a skull found, in the year 1820, at Fuersbrunn, in Austria. 

 The well known traveler. Dr. Tschudi, conceived that the skull was brought to 

 Europe as a curiosity, and then thrown aside. 



It thus appears that the practice of artificially compressing crania belongs, 

 both to the Old and New World. It is now recognized that the artificial head- 

 forms characteristic of divers tribes of North and South America vary greatly. 

 The predominant natural form of the more southern tribes of North America ap- 

 pears to have been globular. The type of head-form of the Indians of Hochela- 

 ga, first met by Jacques Cartier in 1535, we can judge from the crania recovered 

 from their cemeteries. The palisaded Indian town of Hochelaga occupied, in 

 the i6th century, the site where we are now assembled, and in the museum of 

 McGill College may be seen examples of the crania. It is a noticeable fact in 

 reference to the entire population of the western hemisphere that the ethnical di- 

 versities are slight when compared with those which pertain to the older conti- 

 nents. Great as is the superficial resemblance which seems to pervade the di- 

 verse tribes of the American continents some of the underlying differences are 

 noted from the first. Columbus failed not to note the marked distinction between 

 the fair complexion of the Guanches and the reddish olive 6f the ferocious Caribs, 



