FROM THE SANTA BARBARA ISLANDS. 287 



its relations with the former are, perhaps, closer and more clearly defined. It 

 is true the one skull is decidedly orthocephalous while the other is brachy- 

 cephalous, and that in the entire lot of three hundred and fifteen crania from 

 the islands only 4i per cent, reach the very moderate grade of brachyceph- 

 alism of the typical Alaskan, and under these circumstances it does seem 

 like straining a point to claim that any resemblance at all exists between 

 them; still, as a matter of fact, there are individual crania in this collection 

 with an index even higher than that of the Alaskan ; and, from the most doli- 

 chocephalous to the opposite extreme, they shade into each other by a series 

 of almost imperceptible gradations. With the typical cranium of the Green- 

 land Eskimo, Nos. 12 and 13, Table II, however, the differences are of a 

 more radical character, as, besides being smaller in every way, the one 

 skull is platvcephalous, or broader than it is high, and the other strongly 

 hypsicephalous, or higher than it is broad. These conditions seem to be 

 very general in the two collections, as out of the seventy-six Eskimo crania 

 there are eight, or 11 per cent., in which the breadth is greater than the 

 height, while of the three hundred and fifteen crania from the California Isl- 

 ands, there are but eighteen, or 7 per cent., in which it is not so. In the facial 

 bones, too, especially those of the nose and cheek, these skulls are found 

 to differ as essentially as in the size and form of the calvaria. In view of 

 these fundamental differences it is impossible to assign these crania to one 

 and the same class, even if our comparison be limited to the dolichocephali 

 from Santa Oatalina; and for the same reasons, so far as they relate to 

 the indices of height and breadth, the same remark will apply a fortiori to 

 the averages of the two branches of the Eskimo, as given in Nos. 12, 13, 

 14, and 15, Table II. That they indicate a difference in species, using this 

 term in the sense in which it is usually employed in Zoology, it would be 

 premature to affirm, as the range of individual variation, even among peo- 

 ples of a presumably pure race, is found to be very great, and affords a 

 convenient alternative to any one desiring to escape this conclusion. That 

 they do, however, represent a very marked differentiation — call it species, 

 race, variety, or what you will — is believed to be beyond cavil; and this 

 may be admitted, be it understood, without carrying with it the full accept- 

 ance of the polygenistic theory. The uniformity with which the Greenland 



