Shaler.] 332 [January 20, 



MEASUREMENTS OF SKULL FROM SHORT CAVE. SQUIER AND DAVIS. 



Longitudinal diameter 6.7 inches. 



Interparietal " 5.5 " 



Vertical " ....'. 6.2 " 



Frontal " 4.5 " 



Intermastoid arch 13.5 " 



Intermastoid line 5. " 



Horizontal periphery • . 19.7 " 



The table mentioned above also contains the measurements of a 

 skull said to have been found in the Mammoth Cave, but this skull is 

 not well authenticated, and the conditions under which it was found 

 are not known. 



Mr. W. H. Dall, of the United States Coast Survey, gave 

 a brief account of the archaeological work done in connection 

 with the Coast Survey work at the Aleutian Islands. He 

 spoke more particularly of the methods of burying practised 

 by the early inhabitants of these islands, and of their mode 

 of preserving or mummifying the bodies by a process of 

 evisceration and drying. He also described various imple- 

 ments and fabrics formerly manufactured and in use among 

 them. 



. January 20, 1875. 



The President in the chair. Seventy-two persons present. 



The following papers were read : — 



Some considerations on the possible means whereby a 

 Warm Climate may be produced within the Arctic 



Circle. By N. S. Shaler. 



There is hardly another question in geology which presents greater 

 difficulties than that of the origin of the forest vegetation, preserved 

 to us in the various fossil-bearing beds about the north pole. In 

 Greenland, up to 76° of north latitude, or to within 14° of the pole 

 itself, in Iceland, Bear Island, and at various other points in the 



