THROUGHOUT THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 411 



from those points to the opening of the ear. From the parietal pro- 

 tuberances there is a slightly curved slope to the vertex, producing a 

 conical, or rather a wedge-shaped outline." These opinions are still 

 more strongly advanced in Dr. Morton's most matured views, where 

 he ascribes the same characteristics to the Fuegian, the Indian, the 

 tribes to the west of the Rocky Mountains, and those which skirt 

 the Esquimaux on the north. " All possess alike the long, lank, 

 black hair, the brown or cinamon-coloured skin, the heavy brow, the 

 dull and sleepy eye, the full and compressed lips, and the salient but 

 dilated nose. The same conformity of organization is not less ob- 

 vious in the osteological structure of these people, as seen in the 

 square or rounded head, the flattened or vertical occiput, the large 

 quadrangular orbits, and the low receding forehead;" and he goes 

 on to reiterate the opinion that, in spite of any " mere exceptions to 

 a general rule," the Indian of every variety " is an Indian still, and 

 cannot be mistaken for a being of any other race." Still more, in 

 the same final embodiment of his matured opininions, Dr. Morton 

 affirms the American race to be essentially separate and peculiar, and 

 with no obvious links, such as he could discern, between them and 

 the people of the old world, but a race distinct from all others. 



It is obvious that the tendency of Dr. Morton's vievv3, as based 

 on the results of his extended observations, was to regard the most 

 marked distinctions in American crania, as mere variations within 

 narrow limits, embraced by the common and peculiar type, which he 

 recognised as characteristic of the whole continent, both north and 

 south. In this opinion his successors have not only concurred, but 

 they even attach less importance to the variations noted by his care- 

 ful eye. Dr. Nott, for example, remarks on the peculiarities of the 

 very remarkable brachycephalic skull taken from a mound in the 

 Scioto valley, and figured the natural size in Messrs. Squier & Davis's 

 Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley :* " Identical charac- 

 ters pervade all the American race, ■ ancient and modern, over the 

 whole continent. We have compared many heads of living tribes, 

 Cherokees, Choctaws, Mexicans, &c, as well as crania from mounds 

 of all ages, aud the same general organism characterizes each one."f 



One more authority may be quoted to show that the conclusions 

 thus early adopted by Dr. Morton, and maintained and confirmed by 

 his subsequent writings, are still regarded as among the best estab- 

 lished and most indisputable summaries deduced from well ascer- 

 tained data of American Ethnology. Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, the edi- 



* Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. I. pi. 47. 

 t Types of Mankind, p. 291. 



