Contributions to the Anthropolog}' of the East Greenlanders. 171 



However, the significance of the various cranionietrical racemarks as 

 such is still so little known, that there can be no question of using them 

 to distinguish the sub-divisions of a single race; and, as the materials 

 which have been collected from other quarters are scanty, and 

 moreover have not been published in a harmonized form, it will 

 only in exceptional cases be possible to show the special signi- 

 licance in the whole system, of the results gained by a detailed 

 examination. But even if we cannot count on an immediate tangible 

 result from such an investigation, it is nevertheless of value partly 

 for its own sake, as a positive contribution to our knowledge, but 

 particularly because we have here to do with a tribe which in 

 virtue of its geographical position must be regarded as the extreme 

 link in the development of a widely distributed race, and which, 

 moreover, on account of its almost complete isolation, must be 

 regarded as relatively pure and unmixed. 



The skulls must in general be designated as long, narrow, and 

 high (hypsistenocephalic) with a powerful development of the face 

 parts. Seen from in front (norma frontalis Prichard, facialis Camper) 

 the skull is pyramidical, high in the sagittal plane, narrow above 

 the forehead, and broad above the cheek-bones, the bottom edge of 

 which recedes to the sides; the eye sockets are large and round 

 (megaseme), the nose particularly narrow. Seen from above (norma 

 verticalis Blumenbach) the skull is long, broader behind than in 

 front, with large tubera parietalia; seen from the side (norma lateralis 

 Camper) it is prognathic, with highly prominent upper jaw, weak 

 arcus supraorbitalis, high vaulted forehead, and bulky occipital part; 

 the linea semicircularis reaches up to and often passes beyond tuber 

 parietale. Seen from behind (norma posterior s. occipitalis Laurillard), 

 the skull is pentagonal (ogival) with a broad basis, and seen from 

 below (norma inferior Owen), it is long, broad in front over the 

 protruding zygomatic arches; the upper jaw is thrust forward, so 

 that the descending sphenoid wings incline sharply backwards, and 

 the palatal parts are large. 



The way in which the several skulls diverge from this general 

 delineation requires no special mention in this place, and the 

 individual variations are on the whole without significance. 



The sexual differences are in general so little noticeable, that as 

 a rule I have not deemed it necessary to take them into considera- 

 tion in calculating the average, and, as the few immature skulls 

 seem notwithstanding to have attained full dimensions, I have 

 thought fit to include them also. 



Before I proceed to pass in review the contents of the follow- 

 ing table with a special view to the salient points in it, I must 



