tique vessels, masks, ornaments, &c. It is preserved in the collection of the American Philosophical
Society. The forehead is low, but not very receding; the face projects, and the
whole cranium is extremely unequal in its lateral portions. I had almost omitted the
remark, that this irregularity of form is common in and peculiar to American crania.
Let us now track the American type into the Barbarous races. Among the Iroquois and
some other tribes of both North and South America, heads of more elongated form are
occasionally met with; but the type truly characteristic predominates largely among the
Creeks—under which appellation were embraced most of the tribes of Alabama, Georgia
and Florida. Having personally examined many of these nations, I can vouch for this fact.
While Prof. Agassiz was in Mobile last spring, I took occasion to point out this cranial uniformity
; and his critical eye detected no exception in at least 100 living Choctaw Indians
whom we examined together in and around the city. The modem Creek chief [supra, Fig.
302] affords satisfactory evidence.
Seminole (Creek Tribe) and Dacota (Sioux).
Fig. 316. Seminole war-
Fig. 315.530 r i°r (Fig' 315)
( W * slain at the battie
of St. Jo-
rA seph’s, 30 miles
Vil below St. Au-
N gustine, in June,
I \ 1836, by Capt.
I x , . \ Justin Dimmick,
/ S \ U. S. Artillery.
{ I Longitudinal di-
\ \ I ameter, 7*3 in.;
\ I p a r i e t a l , 5*9;
\ ( / frontal, 4*6; ver-
\ . \ / tical, 5-8. In-
| ternal capacity,
93 cubic inches.
Fig. 818 is the
head of a Sioux
• warrior; v e r y
characteristic of
his tribe. Longitudinal
diameter
6*7 inches; parietal,
5*7; frontal,
4-2; vertical,
5*4. Internal capacity,
85 cubic
inches.
Deference to
the Crania Americana
will show
t h a t examples
might be greatly
Seminole—Profile View.
F ig. 317.
Vertical View.
Fio. 318.M1
Seminole—Back View. Dacota—Profile View.
multiplied, to prove that our Indian aborigines are everywhere comprehended under one
groiip. I have already spoken of the ancient mounds and the mound-builders; have shown
how numerous and widely-extended they are, and that they all belonged to the great
Toltecan family. In addition to the cranium discovered by Squier [Fig. 198], I subjoin
two more of these mound-skulls, selected from points separated by immetise distance.
Skull from, a Mound on the Upper Mississippi.
F ig. 320.
Skull (Fig. 319) taken Fig. 319.-™
from a mound seated
on the high bluff which
overlooks the Missis,
sippi river, 160 miles
above the mouth of the
Missouri. There were
six mounds, placed over
each in a right lin§,
commencing w i t h a
small one, only a few
feet high, and terminating
in another of
eight or ten feet elevation
and twenty in diameter.
This skull was
obtained from the fifth
mound of the series. It is a large cranium, very full in the vertical diameter, and broad
between the parietal bones.
Longitudinal diameter, 7*1 inches; parietal, 5 '3 ; frontal, 4*8; vertical, 6*6. Internal
capacity, 85*5 cubic inches.
Skull from a Mound in Tennessee.
This cranium (Fig. F ig. 321.533*
¿21) was exhumed by _ F ig. 322.
the late distinguished
Dr. Troost, of Nashville,
Tennessee, from a
mound in that State, at
the j u n c t i o n of the
French, Broad and Hol-
ston rivers. Many other
mounds are found in
this section of country.
This skull is remarkable
for its vertical and parietal
diameters, flatness
and elevation of
the occiput. The facial
Vertical View.
angle is also unusually
great.
Longitudinal diameter, 6*6 inches ; parietal, 5*6 ; frontal, 4*1
vertical, 5-6. Internal
capacity, 87*5 cubic inches.
To the reader have thus been submitted specimens of American
skulls, from parts of the continent the most widely separated — some
crania collected from the Toltecan, some from the Barbarous tribes
of the present times, and others from ancient mounds and burial-
places : and, although there are sundry minor varieties in thé forms
of crania — a few exceptions to the general rule, yet the type which I