fined, not only by the semicircular line of the os frontis, but also by a very prominent cre^t
above the external meatus, into the posterior part of which the zygomatic processes are
continued. Moreover, in nearly all the Esthonian skulls, the external pterygoid processes
are very broad»; often the spinous process of the sphenoidal bone is, at the same time, so
prolonged, that it coalesces with the posterior margin of the former process. . . . . This
conformation indicates a greater evolution of the external pterygoid muscle than in others
less broad. This muscle being efficient, the lateral motion of the lower jaw is increased, in
consequence of the smallness of the condyles as compared with the large glenoid cavity;
hence, the crowns of the teeth, already worn down in the young, are proofs of the possession
of the most powerful organs for masticating vegetable 'food. It only remains to be
observed that, in the lower jaw, the ascending ramus is lower than in skulls of the Caucasian
variety, the angle more obtuse, and the posterior part of the body of the jaw less broad,
and the anterior part higher, and the chin itself rounded, and rarely angular.”
Such, according to Dr. H ueck, are the characters of the Esthonian
skull — characters which, he further assures us, are more pronounced
in proportion as these people are less mixed with others. He also
expresses a belief in the possibility of tracing the Finns to their
primitive sources, by a careful study of the heads found in ancient
sepulchres of this region.
From the foregoing descriptions the reader will readily perceive
the differences between the Finnic and Mongolic types of skull.
The Mongolian face is broad and high, the cheek-bones very robust,
the malar fossa shallow, the nasal hones small and flat, teeth strong
and straightly placed, hounding a large space; the orbits are deep and
less square. Oblique palpebral openings correspond to the formation
of the facial bones, for the internal orbital process of the frontal bone
descends more deeply than in the Caucasian variety, and the Estho-
nians especially, whence the lachrymal bone and the entrance to the
canal are lower down. The internal canthus being adjacent to this,
is placed lower; hence the obliquity of the-palpebral opening, so
peculiar to the Mongolian. We thus find nothing common to the
Mongolian type and to the shape of the Esthonian skull except a
certain squareness of figure which is not constant.
It will thus be seen that the cranial type of the Laplander belongs
to a lower order than that of the Finn, and that the former race falls
properly within the limits of the Arctic form, while the latter leans
decidedly towards the Indo-Germanic type, finding its relation to the
latter through the Sclavonian rather than the true Scandinavian
types. But inferiority of form is to some extent a natural indication
of priority of existence. We are thus led from cranial investigations
alone to recognize the Lapps as the autochthones of Northwestern
Europe, who at a very remote period have been overlaid by
the encroaching Finn. This opinion is countenanced by the following
facts, G eijer assures us that the earliest historical accounts of
llie Lapps and linn s testify to their diversify and primitive separation.
Under the combined pressure of the Swedes and Norwegians
on the west, and the Finns on the east, the Lapponic area has, from
the dawn of history, been a receding one. Lapponic names for places
are found in Finland, and, as already observed, human bones more
like those of the Laplanders than the Scandinavians have been found
in ancient cemeteries as far south as Denmark. P eter H ogstrom
tells us that the Lapps maintain that their ancestors formerly had
possession of all Sweden. We have it upon histopcal record, that so
late as the fifteenth century Lapponic tribes were pushed*-out of
Savolax and East Bothnia towards the north.
Prof. S. N ilsson, of Lund, thinks that the southern parts of Sweden
were formerly connected with Denmark and Germany, while the
northern part of Scandinavia was covered with the sea; that Scania
received its post-diluvian flora from Germany; and that as vegetation
increased, graminivorous animals came from the south, followed
by the carnivora, and finally by man, who lived in the time of the
Bos primigenius and Ursus Spelceus. In proof of the antiquity here
assigned to Scandinavian man, he tells us that they have in Lund a
skeleton of the Bos pierced with an arrow, and another of the Ursus
which was found in a peat-bog in Scania, under a gravel or stone
deposit, along with implements of the chase.176' From these implements,
he infers that these aborigines, were a savage race, of fishers
and hunters-.
“ The stalls of the aboriginal inhabitants found in these ancient barrows are short
(brachy-cephalic of Retzius), with prominent parietal tubers, and broad and flattened occi-
put. It is worthy of remark, that the same form of cranium exists among several very
*» The reader will find some highly interesting and curious speculations upon the
antiquity of British Man, in a paper entitled, On the Chime of the Gigantic Irish Deer to be
considered as contemporary with Man, recently read (May, 1855), by Mr. H. Denhy before
the Geological and Polytechnic Society of the West Riding of Yorkshire. “ In my endeavor
to trace the Megaceros down to the human era,” says Mr. D., in confiluding his paper “ I
am by no means advocating the idea that they have, as species, been equally long inhabitants
of this earth. On the contrary, I suppose ithat the last stragglers only, which escaped
annihilation by physical changes and causes, may have continued to exist down to Man’s
first appearance on the British Isles; and as precisely similar views regarding the extinction
o the Dmornis m New Zealand have been advocated by Dr.-Mantell in one of his last communications
to the Geological Society, I shall make no apology in concluding with his
remarks when speaking of the Moa-beds: - Both these ossiferous deposits, though but of
yesterday in geological history, are of immense antiquity in relation to the human inhabi-
ants of the country. I believe that ages, ere the advent of the Maoris, New Zealand was
ensely peopled by the stupendous bipeds whose fossil remains are the sole indications of
them fomer existence. That the last of the species was exterminated by human agencv
n oV t and Solltaire of the Maaritras, and the Gigantic Elk of Ireland, there can bl
that n • 1 1 ^ maU b6gan the Wdrk °f destrac‘ion> » ¡8 not unphilosophical to assume
R S f revolutions, inducing great changes in the relative distribution of the land 19