■ -© M | I p r ® ( D I E , ;
OF Cokir.MBIA HIVE IV .
TSfahirul Form..
-liiQl. of JoKn GhOlins N?TS South Tlrii-3. Sh eet PkiWrlpliin
the forehead is a straight line from the nose to the crown of the head.”* They
are represented as a mild and peaceable people, who live in comparative happiness.
There is also near the sources of the Columbia river a tribe still called by the
name of Flatheads, who have long since abandoned the custom from which they
derived their present designation. Their true name is Salish, and they are in no
way connected with the Columbia river tribes.f
PLATE XLI1.
CHINOUK.
This plate represents a Chinouk skull of the natural form : it was that of a
slave, and was obtained by Mr. J. K. Townsend during his late sojourn on the
Columbia river. “ I have occasionally seen both Chinouks and Chickitats, says
Mr. Townsend, “with round or ordinary shaped heads, sickness having prevented
the usual distortion while young: but such individuals can never attain to any
influence, or rise to any dignity in their tribe, and are not unfrequently sold as
slaves.’’^
It has been thought by some philosophers, that were the artificial modification
of the cranium persisted in for several successive generations, it would at length
become congenital and perpetual. This hypothesis is proved to be wholly
gratuitous by the evidence derived from the American nations, among whom the
characteristic form of the skull is always preserved, unless art has directly
interfered to distort it.
M Lewis and Clark, Exped. II, p. 12.—Walknaer, Cosmog. p. 583; quoted in Humboldt’s Pers.
Narr. VI, p. 32.
t Townsend, Journey to the Columbia River, p. 175.—RosseCox, Trav. &c., p 120
{Extract of Letter addressed to me from Fort Vancouver; Sept. 26, 1835.