PYRAMIDAL SKULLS ! AMERICAN NATIONS. 3 1 1
has been oBservedum several skull’s, as in acranium described
by Blumenbach, who oonnOcts$t>te*< circumstance with the
powerful1 sepge* of smell* fobwhich the&e barbarians are celebrated.
‘ The obcipubis somewhat flat, >Andithe.protuberances which
mark»,the seat of the‘ cCrebellnm pot ffery prominent; though
in the Mi^o;ftfi| Indian, they'are still marked and^distin’et.
One of the »most remarkable pechliaritiel^oil the American
head, and one mQstf gfenerally oWprved by Blumenbach, is
the largeness' and .depth toft the orbflk. ,•*
I t may be».; quIwonM whether-ally of./stlfe '^h|kradiefs laid
down- as?difetifi^uishing the AmeflcanwfaMea'froM'fthe Asiatic
are constant and applicablgi“to dllt&h'e * nations/ New
Worlfth ■ ■ They,* Cbigfly' retete-^toi the numerous.. tribes^ opf the
Algohquin family, and to ; tho$e ‘ alhedfo? ■ thg ? Si® Nations
and to the^M&idians. bn these thedeatliEqs^cspeeiailyjflie
nosepare by nq/means .so 'much flattened1’as pin the-Turanian
nations. The'same remark applies v to other northern tribes^:
and especiaMy to the Chepewyan^There aPe-two-skulls ih the
collection of Guy’s Hospital which;Si^>h^lsy resemble’and have *
both the ;cjiaracters here described: one belonged to*1 a Chip-
peway and may be5» considered as a-a^nbHmehs'Of'' theiAlgdh-
quin fdrih’; the : other to a Chepfewyan. I have obtained!
through thekind assistance of Dr!»Hodgkin,a-'represeUtation'
of~ the latter; which I insert by preferfenOe^l^lc'SuSe$no skull
of this race^hitherto little known, has^hlhi seem in Europbi
Many skulls-have been found in ancient tombs in various
parts of the United States, which resemble-' the - Esquimaux
more than the p r e s e n te r rather the- late inhabitants of the
country. Did these belong to races exterminated when. the
Lenni Lenape occupied thp region'eastward oibthe Mihsisippi,
or has the physical constitution - of th e ’people’undergone a
change in the course of ages V There i&-a skull of this description
in the museum of Guy’s H o sp ita l,^ which an account
is given in the descriptive ca-thjoghe of the collection
by Dr. Hodgkin. It was found* in a tumulus'near Niagara^
and is supposed to have belonged to an individual of an extinct
race. The skulls o f the flat-head Indians1 have somewhat
of the same form, but their shape is modified by art.