| OCR Text |
Show 57 In order not to crowd and confuse the diagram we omitted the outline of skull No. 3, the frontal portion of which ( even to the superciliary ridges) would almost overlap that of the Peruvian. It will be seen that the general character of the profile views of the three skulls is not very different, the Abiquia cranium showing the greatest height, the steepest forehead, and an almost straight occipital outline, while that from Goban is intermediate between the two others. The cranium having the greatest length is that of the Peruvian, viz, 162""% differing only I""" from that of the Goban Indian. In the diagram this difference aeems to be greater, as the occipital outline of the Peruvian projects considerably beyond that of the former; but if we come to examine the receding frontal of the latter and remember that the greatest length lies between the glabella and the most prominent point of the occiput, then the features of the diagram appear to be quite normal. A comparison of the breadth of the crania bears out ( he fact that the measurements of the Peruvian and Abiqniu Indian coincide exactly, they being both .156 ™ ", while that of the Coban Indian gives 12mm less. In regard to the breadth of the frontal bone the Abiquiu skull exhibits the maximum, viz, 128""°; next to this is the Peruvian, namely, 1180"" j and finally the Coban Indian, measuring 112mm only. The length of the same bone is greatest in the Coban Indian, its measurement giving 122*"", that of the Peruvian being 3B" D, and that of the skull from Abiquiu 7mm shorter. The Peruvian skull being the longest among the three, has also the most considerable circumference, namely, 505m, n, while the Abiquiu Indian measures 495Bnn around, and the skull from Coban 461mm only. After this paper had been placed in the hands of the printer, the United States National Museum at the Smithsoniou Institution received a box with relics exhumed from mounds in Tennessee, which happened to be opened in my presence. Besides several cubic feet of bone fragments it contained two erania, showing exactly the same mode of deformation as the skulls obtained in the vicinity of the ruins. And indeed the resemblance between the crania from those two different localities is so great that they might readily be confounded. It beingf too late to present cuts of these specimens, I shall limit myself by describing the same, designating one by A and the other by B. Cranium A. Very light and smooth, and apparently that of a woman. As the eruption of the last molars had taken place, the individual must have been at least twenty- one years of age when it died; that is, if we are justified in using the same criterion in judging the age of an Indian as we do in judging that of a white man. Taking into consideration that the skull was taken from a mound, it is in a tolerable state of preservation ; the left zygomatic bone and the styloid processes being broken, however, and the upper jaw containing but six teeth. The condition of the lower is less good, there being only three teeth left, the rami being rather defective and the condyloid aud coronoid processes wanting. Viewed from above, the skull is irregularly heart- shaped ; the irregularity being produced by the compression of the left parietal. The compression extends from a plane laid horizontally through the tubers, from the right tuber down to the squamous and occipital sutures, so that the left bone and tuberosity seem to protrude considerably. Serration of the sagittal suture strong, the two parietals grooved at their line of junction. The zygomatic bqpes project but slightly beyond the general |
