408 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 170 



effective in starting people to think about it, but 

 can never suffice to show what policy should be 

 adopted. To demonstrate what ought to be done 

 is one thing ; but to show how to do it is, as all 

 practical men know, a very different and gener- 

 ally a much more difficult thing. We hope, 

 therefore, that if our naval friends, for whose 

 professional ability Science entertains the highest 

 respect, really desire the transfer, they will pre- 

 sent such a detailed plan of proceeding from be- 

 ginning to end, that every one shall be able to 

 understand and criticise it. Until they do this, 

 they must not expect to excite congress to action. 



We may add one general consideration. A 

 considerable number of naval officers are actually 

 engaged in coast-survey work. Is not their work 

 as effectively performed under the present sys- 

 tem as it would be if the navy department had 

 charge of it? What would the officers themselves, 

 or the navy at large, gain by the transfer? We 

 are aware that Secretary Chandler considered it 

 a very great hardship that officers should be re- 

 moved from the immediate control of the depart- 

 ment to which they belong. But where does the 

 real evil come in ? These questions must be an- 

 swered, and the public benefit to be gained by the 

 change must be made clear, before the project can 

 receive the really effective support of scientific 

 men. The latter are not disposed to prejudge 

 the question, but before supporting the measure 

 they want to be satisfied of its practical advisa- 

 bility ; and this can be done only by the advocates 

 of the change fully considering such questions as 

 those above suggested. 



COMPOSITE PORTRAITS OF AMERICAN 

 INDIANS. 



On the plate accompanying this number is given, 

 so far as known, the first presentation of com- 

 posite portraits taken of North American Indians. 



No. 1 is of three full-blood Dakota or Sioux 

 young women belonging to the band commonly 

 known as the Brule, and living at the Crow 

 Creek agency, Dakota territory. Their ages 

 range from nineteen to twenty-three years. Their 

 average height is five feet six inches and a half ; 

 their average weight, a hundred and forty-one 

 pounds. This composite is made from photographs 

 taken on the same day and in rapid succession. 

 On the same afternoon, composite No. 2 was taken 

 from the same persons, each one sitting her 

 allotted seconds before the camera. In No. 1 and 

 No. 2 the order of the faces is identical, and care 

 was exercised to try and procure similar results in 



the portrait ; but, as will be observed, the com- 

 posites are different. The controlling face in No. 

 1 is given in picture No. 3, which was the first 

 photograph to be exposed in making up composite 

 No. 1. The dominant face in No. 2 is given in 

 picture No. 4. It belonged to the last sitter, and 

 her photograph was the last one exposed in mak- 

 ing composite No. 1. In two composites similarly 

 made, of Omaha women, the one from sitters 

 varies in alike manner from the one made up from 

 photographs, only in a different order. In the 

 one from life the broad face of the last sitter con- 

 trols the composite, and in the other the long face 

 of the first photograph influences the picture. 

 This variation of composites made from the same 

 faces — one taken from life, the other from 

 photographs — is mentioned for what it may be 

 worth. 



A composite of Omaha men, a cognate tribe, 

 differs but little from a Dakota composite, except 

 in the eyes. In the Omaha composite the eyes 

 are larger and fuller. The height and breadth of 

 head, the strong but not unduly heavy lower face, 

 are noticeable in both Omahas and Dakotas. A 

 composite of Omaha women does not differ in 

 any marked manner from the Dakota portrait. In 

 both the pictures of the women, there is to be ob- 

 served a similar variation between the female and 

 the male of the same tribe, notably in the shape of 

 the head, and the greater prominence, proportion- 

 ally, of the cheek-bones in the women's faces. 



It is premature to judge of the value of com- 

 posite portraits. They are certainly curious and 

 interesting, and many points will occur to the 

 observer of these Indian faces. In a general way, 

 they seem to confirm the results of a close study 

 of the home-life and the various customs, includ- 

 ing the most savage rites of war and religion, made 

 by the writer among this family of Indian tribes, 

 by showing them to be a people, intellectual rather 

 than brutal, unawakened rather than degraded. 

 The portraits indicate the stamp of tribal fixity, 

 and reveal the unconsciousness within the indi- 

 vidual of the analytical powers of mind by which 

 man masters nature, — a peculiarity which is the 

 key to much in Indian sociology and religion. 



The writer is indebted to Mr. Jenness Richard- 

 son of Washington, D.C., for the making of the 

 composites. Alice C. Fletcher. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



Siberian trade-routes. — The practical failure 

 of the route by sea has stimulated the search for 

 routes of inland communication between Russia 

 and Siberia. The latest investigations are those be- 



