424 SUPPOSED PREVALENCE OF ONE CRANIAL TYPE 



nomical, physiological, and above all, the cranial unity characterizing 

 the whole ancient and modern aborigines of the New "World. 



I omit, meanwhile, any reference to the characteristics ascribed by 

 Dr. Morton to the Iroquois and Hurons or "Wyandots : those tribes 

 to whom, with the greatest probability, may be assigned the crania 

 specially examined by me, found along the shores of Lake Ontario, 

 the north shore of Lake Erie, and on Lake Huron. "When Cham- 

 plain effected permanent settlements on the Lower St. Lawrence in 

 1608, he found the north shores of the river occupied, below Quebec, 

 by the Montagnets or Montagnards, and above it by the Ottawas, 

 and other branches of the Algonquin stock. The country to the 

 westward, constituting the great Canadian Peninsula lying between 

 Georgian Bay, the Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, was chiefly, if 

 not entirely, in the possession of the Hurons ; while the Iroquois — 

 to whom the latter were most nearly allied in social and physical 

 characteristics, though at deadly enmity with them, — occupied the 

 south bank of the St. Lawrence, and had their chief villages scat- 

 tered among the clustering lakes, and the rivers, on the southern 

 shore of Lake Ontario, which they continued to occupy and cultivate 

 till driven out or exterminated in the revolutionary wars. The 

 Iroquois and the Huron tribes were alike distinguished from many 

 others, and especially from the neighbouring hunter tribes of the 

 Algonquin nations, by considerable attention to cultivation, and by 

 living permanently in large settled villages. But the Iroquois Wars 

 effectually arrested the progress of agriculture, and at length eradi- 

 cated or drove out the Hurons from their country between Georgian 

 Bay and Lake Ontario, where they were replaced by rude Algonquin 

 tribes formerly lying to the north of them. 



The Hurons then, and, in very modern years, the Algonquins, but 

 more especially the former, are the occupants of the country imme- 

 diately to the north of Lakes Erie and Ontario, whose remains are to 

 be looked for in the Indian graves of this district. Of them Latham 

 remarks : " The Iroquois and Algonkins exhibit in the most typical 

 form the characteristics of the North American Indians, as exhibited 

 in the earliest descriptions, and are the two families upon which the 

 current notions respecting the physiognomy, habits, and moral and 

 intellectual powers of the so-called Red Race are chiefly founded."* 

 In many respects, however, they presented a striking contrast. The 

 Algonquin stock, represented by the modern Chippeways, is only 

 known to us as embracing rude and savage hunter tribes ; and both 



* Varieties of Mankind, p. 333. 



