mans, and the tribes of *Gbili. thh
occipital poftion of the cranium will prdba-feily be found to
eharacteriseagreater m' less riumber of individuals iii every
existing tribe from Tierra del Fuero to the Canadas. ; If the
skulls be viewed from behind, we observe'tbe 'Occipital Outline
to be moderately curved outwards, wide at the occipital-pro^
tuberance, and full from these points to the openihg of 'thi
ear. From the parietal protuberances to the vertex theie^ga
nightly carved slope, producing a conical or rather a wedges
shaped outline.
“ Humboldt has remarked that there is .no race on the
globe in which the frontal bone • is so much pressed backwards,
and in which the forehead is so small. It must be
observed, however, that the lowness of the forehead is-in
some measure compensated by its breadth, which is geheridly
considerable. The flat forehead was, esteemed beautiful
among a great number of tribes; and this fancy ha£'been
the principal incentive to the moulding of the head by art.
“ Although the orbital cavities are large, the. £ƒ& themselves
are smaller than in Europeans; and Frerife#;aseer'ts
that the Puelche women whom he saw in Chili were absolutely
hideous from the smallness of their eyes. The latter
are also deeply set or sunk in the , head, an appearance
which is much increased by the low and prominent fronted
ridges^-
“ Among the North American Indians there is scarcely any
decided obliquity in the position of the eyes, Which is so
universal among the Malays and Mongoles; bttt Spix and
Martius have observed it in some Braziliah tribes, and Humboldt
in those of the Orinoko; and among the Pouris the
Prince de Wied describes a man who bore in this and other
respects a marked resemblance to a Kalmuk.
“ What has been said of the bony orbits obtains with
surprising uniformity: thus the superior margin is but slightly
curved, while the inferior may be compared to an inverted
arch. The lateral margins form curves rather mediate between
the other two. This fact is the - _ __\ more interestinOg on
account of the contrast it presents to the oblong orbit and
parallel margins observable in the Malay. The latter obnfoFmatijén^
bpwnysi*1» ^gometimes seen in the American, but
chiefly in tbpfee'skulls, which have been altered by pressure on
the .fcoiffcai drone;, ■ >:
“ The ntesp. ,c©nstjtutes one of ,the, strongest and most
un iform .foateros of the India^countenanee: it mostly presents
the decidedly ajrched i form, with opt being -aquiline, and still
mope; rare-lydlat.
“ The nasal cavities eoTrespond to the size' of the nose
itself; and the remarkable acuteness o f smell ,possessed by
the, American Indian hasdree^ attributed to the great expansion
of-the olfactory membrane. % ^ fthe perfection gf this
sense, like thatsof hearingyamong ,the; s^nievpeople, is perhaps
chiefly to be attributed -t© itn constant and.- assiduous •eultiva-r
tiom The eheek-feonesiare.large and prominent, and incline
rapidly, towards1 the,,lower jaw,'giving the faeg an afgular
conformation. The upper jaw is, often elongated and much
mclined outwards, but the teeth die for the most part vertical.
The lower jaw is. broad and ponderous* -and connected in
f r o n ts The teetfo.ara also very large and seidrim decay; few
present marks of disease,- though the teeth are often warn by
the mastication^ of hard sub stances. ’
M. • d’Orbigny, a distinguished, -naturalist accustomed to
observe tand discriminate anatomical characters*, who,- has
travelled in South America for the purpose , of making disdsB-
#eries and collections in natural history; and who has written
a valuable and interesting work on the nations of that cotota*
nent, represents the American tribes as differing from each
other to a much greater extent. I shall Cftesbie observations.
“ We know what variety of feafcresds to be seen among
the inhabitants of our cities, and how easy it is to find in
themx the different types of physiognomy of the most remote
countries. We shall not inquire whether , this diversity of
forms and of countenances depends on the; mixture: of races,
or how much we ought to attribute to the influence of civilisation,—
questions which are foreign to our present subject.
We only allude to the fact in order to introduce the remark
that, if among individual American nations the limits of
variety had been so wide, we should never have been able to
describe precisely the character of the several groupes of