prominent; glenoid, cavity capacious, and adapted to considers ole
lateral motion of tlie condyles; forehead flat and receding; occiput
full and salient; face broad and lozenge-shaped, the greatest hreadth
being just below the orhits; malar hones hroad, high, and prominent,
the external surface looking antero-laterally; orbits large and
straight; zygomatic arches massive and widely separated; length of
the face one inch less than the breadth; nasal bones flat, narrowband
united at an obtuse angle, sometimes lying in the same plane as the
naso-maxillary processes; superior maxilla massive and prognathous,
its anterior surface flat and smooth; superior alveolar margin oval;
inferior margin of anterior nares flat, smooth, inclining forwards and
downwards; inferior maxilla large, long, and triangular; semi-lunar
notch quite shallow; angles of the jaw flared out, and chin prominent
; teeth large, and worn in such a manner as to present, in the
upper jaw, an inclination from without inwards, upwards, and laterally,
and in the lower jaw, just the reverse; antero-posterior diameter
of cuspids greater than the transverseconfiguration of the basis
cranii triangular, with the base of the triangle forward between the
zygomse, the truncated apex looking posteriorly; breadth of hase
about one-half the length; shape of foramen magnum an irregular
oval; anterior margin of foramen magnum on a line with the posterior
edge of the external meati.117
The female cranium differs from the male in being smaller, lighter,
and presenting a smoother surface and more delicate structure. The
malar bones are less massive, the face not quite so broad, and the
anterior surface of the superior maxilla concave rather than flat.
With very slight and insignificant
variations, this type prevails
along the whole American
coast north of the 60th parallel,
and from the Atlantic Ocean
to Bhering’s Straits, ranging
through 140° of longitude, or
over a tract of some 3500 miles.
Nor does it altogether stop
here, as is shown in the accompanying
figure of a Tchuktchi
skull—one of three, brought by
Mr. E. M. Kern from the Island
Arakamtchetehem, or Kayne,
at Glassnappe Harbor, Lat. 64°
Fig. 12.
(Æ Pacific. Explor. Exp., U. S. Corvette “ Vincennes,”
under Capt. Rodgers, U. S. Æ, 1856.)
117 From my unpublished “ Descriptions and Delineations of Skulls in the Mortonian Collection.”
40' N., Long.-172° 59' W. of Greenwich—and by him kindly loaned
to me for examination and study. The above island forms part of
the western bank of Bhering’s Straits. A The name of the village,”
writes Mr. Kern, “ to which the burial-place belonged, whence the
skulls were procured, is Tergnynne In stature, the (Tchuktchi)
men are of good height, well built and active. The women are
generally small, well made, and have exceedingly pretty hands and
feet. Their mouths are generallyjarge; the upper lip is full and
projecting, and the eyes long and narrow.”118
Leaving the Koriaks, and travelling southward, we next encounter
the Kamschatkans, a once numerous, though now scanty and miserable
race, occupying chiefly the southern portion of the peninsula
which bears their name. It has been observed that this people
though presenting most of the physical characters common to the
Polar tribes, are not strictly identical with the latter, as is shown in
their moral and intellectual character. S toller was led by their
physical traits to class them among the Mongolians, while P rich ard
speaks of them as “ a distinct race, divided info four tribes, who
scarcely understand each other.”118 Dr. M orton appears to consider
them as a hybrid people. “ It must be admitted,” says he, “ that the
southern Kamskatkans, in common with the southern tribes of Tun-
gusians and Ostiaks, have so long mixed with the proximate Mongol-
lartar hordes, that it is, in some measure, arbitrary to class them
definitively with either family, for their characters are obviously derived
from both.” 188 An attentive study of the cast of a Kamtskatkan
cranium (No. 725 of the Mortonian collection), and comparison with
Plate LXH. of Blumenhach’s Decades, leave little doubt in my mind
of a sensible departure from the pyramidal iype which predominates
to the north. The cast in question was presented to Dr. Morton by
r. . 8. Fowler. It is long and flat, and presents quite a different
proportion between the hi-temporal, longitudinal, and vertical diameters
from what we find in the heads of the true Hyperboreans. The
low, flat, and smooth forehead is devoid of the keel-like formation
perceptible m the Eskimo. The carinated ridge makes its appearance
along the middle and posterior part of the inter-parietal suture
i he widest transverse diameter is near the superior edge of the temporal
bone; from this point the diameter contracts both above and
below. As m the Eskimo, the occiput is full and prominent, as is
also the posterior surface of the parietal bones, which surface, in the
Eskimo, however, is flat. The forehead inclines upwards and baek-
118 Letter to Mr. Geo. R. Gliddon, dated Washington, Oct. 16th 1856.
119 Nat. Hist, of Man, 3d Edition, p. 223.
120 Crania Americana, p. 52.