Indigenous Races of the Earth

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2GO TilE CRANIAL CIIARACTERISTICS prominent; glenoid cavity capacious, and adapted to considerable laLel'al moLion of the condyles; forehead ilat and receding; occiput full and salient; face broad audlozonn-e-shaped, the greatest bl'cadth being just below tho orbits; malar bones broad, high, and promi­nent, tho external SUI'facc looking antoro-laterally; orbits largo anJ. straight; zygomatic arches massive and widely separated; length of tho face one inch less than tho breadth ; nasal bones flat, narrow, and united at an obtuse anglo, sometimes lying in tho same plano as the naso-maxillary proc s cs; superior maxilla massive and prognathous, its anterior surface flat and smooth; superior alveolar margin oval; inferior margin of anterior narcs flat, smooth, inclining forwards and downwards; in£ rior maxilla large, long, and triangular; semi-lunar notch quito shallow; angles of tho jaw flared out, and chin promi­nent; teeth largo, nnd worn in such a manner as to present, in the upper jaw, au inclination from without inwards, upwards, and late­rally, and in tho lower jaw, just the reverse; antero-posterior diam tor of cuspids greater than tho transverse; configuration of the basis cranii triangular, with tho base of the triangle forward between tho zygomro, the truncated apex looking posteriorly; breadth of base about one-half tho l ngth; shape of foramen magnum an il'rogular o.val; anterior margin of foramen magnum on a line with tho poste­rwr edge of the extomal m ati.117 The foma~o cranium differs from the male in being smaller, lighter, and prosontmg a smoother surface and more delicate structure. The malar bonos arc less massive, tho face not quito so broad, and the anterior sm-faco of tho superior maxilla concave rather than flat. Fig. 12. With very sligl1t and insigni-ficant variations, this type pro­vails along tho whole American coast north of tho 60th parallel, and fi·om the Atlantic Ocean to Bhering's Straits, ranging through 140° of longitude, or over a tract of some 3500 miles. Nor docs it altogether stop here, as is shown in tho accom­panying figure of a 'l'chuktcbi skull-one of three, brought by TortUKTOur. M (N. Pacifio Explor. Exp., u. s. Oorvette " Vin- r. E. M. KERN from the Island cennu," under Oapl. Rodgm, u.s. N., lSGG.) .Arakamtohetchom, or Kayne, at Glassnappo Harbor, Lat. 64° ------------------------ 11~ From my unpublished "Doscl'iptions and Dolinoo.tiona of Skulls in "tho Mortonio.n Col­lootlOn." OF TIIR RACES OF MRN. 2Gl 40' N ., T.;ong. 172° 59' W. of Greenwich-and by him kindly loaned to me for examination and study. The above island forms part of the western bank of Bhcring's Straits. "The name of the village," writes Mr. KERN, "to which the burial-place belonged, whence the skulls were procured, is Yergnynne ..... In stature, th (Tchuktchi) men are of good height, well built and active. 'The women are generally small, well made, and have exceedingly pretty hands and feet. Their mouths arc generally largo; the upper lip is full and projecting, and the eyes long and narrow."118 Leaving the Koriaks, and travelling southward, we next encounter the Kamschatkans, a once numerous, though now scanty and mise­rable race, occupying chi :fly the southcm portion of the peninsula which bears their name. It has been observed that this people, though presenting most of the physical characters common to the Polar tribes, are not strictly identical with the latter, as is shown in their moral and intellectual character. STOJ.LER was led by their physical traits to class them among tho Mongolians, while PmoliARD Rpoaks of them as "a distinct race, divided into four tribes, who scarcely understand each other." 119 Dr. MouToN appears to consider them as a hybrid people. "lt must be aclmitt cl," says he, "that the southern Kamskatkans, in common with the southern tribes of Tun­gusians and Ostiaks, have so long mixed with tho proximate Mongol­Tartar hordes, that it is, in some moasur , arbitrary to class them definitively with either family, for their chamcters arc obviously de­rived from both." 1:n An attentive study of tho cast of a KamtskaLkan cra11inm ( o. 725 of tho Mortonian collection), and comparison with l late LXCL of Bl umcnbach's Decades, leave little doubt in my mind of a sensible departure from the pyramidal typo which predominates to tho norLh. 'l'ho cast in question was presented to Dr. Morton by Dr. 0. . Fowler. It is long and flat, and presents quito a different proportion between tho bi-temporal, longitudinal, and vertical dia­meters from what we find in tho heads of the trnc IIyporboroans. 'l'he low, flat, and smooth forehead is devoid of tho keel-like formation perceptible in the Eskimo. The carinated ridge makes its appear­ance along the m iddlo and posterior part of tho inter-parietal suture. The widest transverse diameter is ncar tho superior edge of the tem­poral bono; from this point the diameter contracts both above and below. As in tho Eskimo, the occiput is full and prominent, as is also tho posterior snr1aco of the parietal bones, ·which surface, in tho Eskimo, however, is ilat. The forehead inclines upwards and back-ns Lotter to Mr. O~o. R Glidden, datcu Washington, Oct. lOth, 1856. uu NtLt. Iliat. of Mnn, 3d Edition, p. 228. 120 Crani11 AmoriofLna, p. 52.