plantations, is full of Huacas, or Mounds of interment described by Prescott. So also in the Valley of the Runiac, as well as that of Huatica, in the districts between Chorillos and Lima converging seaward to Callao and Ancon. These mounds are for the most part still unexplored. Of some such Prescott writes: "vast mounds of an irregular or more frequently oblong shape, penetrated by galleries running at right angles to each other, were raised over the dead, whose dried bodies or mummies have been found in considerable numbers, sometimes erect, but more often in the sitting posture common to the Indian tribes of both Continents. Treasures of great value have also been occasionally drawn from these monumental deposits, and have also stimulated speculators to repeated excavations, with the hopes of similar good fortune."

"But the skulls which I send", Mr. Hutchinson goes on to say, "are not from 'huacas', but from places of interment such as are described in 'Peruvian Antiquities', by Don Mariano Eduardo Rivero."*

Having thus, for the most part in Mr. Hutchinson's words, described the localities from which the present collection of crania was procured, I will proceed to offer a few remarks upon them regarded craniologically. But since the matter has come more particularly under my attention, I have found that so much has been already written on the subject by others, that very little remains for me to remark without repeating what has been already published, a general resumé of which will be found in Professor Daniel Wilson's "Prehistoric Man", and "On the Cranial Characters of the Peruvian Races of Men", a paper by Mr. C. C. Blake in the second volume of the Transactions of the Ethnological Society for the year 1861-2; a paper which is especially valuable for the copious references to the previous literature on the subject.

Perhaps, however, the most complete view within a small compass of the subject as regards these ancient Peruvian races, will be found in Professor D. Wilson's work above cited (p. 225), where he gives an account of his observations, made upon the collection of mummied bodies and crania in the possession of J. H. Blake, Esq., of Boston, and which was brought by him from ancient Peruvian cemeteries on the shore of the Bay of Chacota, near Arica, in latitude 18° 30' S., which burial places appear to be of exactly the same kind as those from which Mr. Hutchinson's collections were procured. As Dr. Wilson's work is in our library and readily accessible, there is no occasion for my making any lengthy extracts from it on the present occasion. It may be mentioned, however, that Mr. Blake remarks that * Chap. viii, p. 200 et seq. G. Putnam and Co., New York, 1858.

"there is no record or tradition, concerning this and similar cemeteries, of the period when they were made use of; and it is by no means certain that they contain the remains of the ancestry of the Indians who now occupy the country."

He remarks also that the colour and texture of the hair are facts of great importance to the Ethnologist, as indicating essential differences from the modern Indians in one important respect; and therefore confirming the probability of equally important ethnic differences suggested by other evidence.

With respect to this point, Professor Wilson (p. 235) states that he has repeatedly obtained specimens of hair from Huron graves near Lake Simcoe, the most modern of which cannot be later than the middle of the seventeenth century, yet in all of which the hair retains its black colour and coarse texture, unchanged alike by time and inhumation; and in this respect corresponding with that of the modern Indians of South America and also of the Chinese and other true Mongols of Asia.

The hair, which is so abundant upon many of the crania on the table, is, as will be observed, by no means coarse, but rather fine and silky, nor is it truly black, but rather of an auburn tint, whilst on one the hue is reduced to a dirty stone colour. But there is no reason, perhaps, on this account to assume that the hair in both cases was not originally black, exposure in a hot, arid, sandy soil, and in the latter case probably to the weather, being sufficient to account for the change of colour from black to the present tint. But the comparative fineness and coarseness are another and more important matter, and if, upon proper microscopic examination and comparison, the differences stated to exist between the ancient and modern Indian hair should be found really to exist, a strong argument would arise in favour of those who suppose that the ancient cemeteries may not really contain the remains of the ancestors of the Indian tribes of the present day.

*

As will at once be perceived, the present collection, taken as a whole, presents a remarkable uniformity of cranial conformation. This is of a strongly brachycephalic type. I have not measured the entire collection, but having selected what appear to be the fairest examples of the various forms, their mean length appears to be about 6.25 ins., and width 5.6 ins., giving a cephalic or latitudinal index of .905, only two falling below .800. In this estimation, however, were included both artificially compressed and, so far as I can perceive, normally shaped skulls. Separating these two from each other, the cephalic index of the supposed

* Linnæus's term "plagiocephalic " is emphatically descriptive of the more common form of American skull, and may be conveniently used to distinguish the broad head with flattened forehead, so characteristic of the greater part of the American races, as, in fact, it was used by him.

normally shaped crania is about .873, the greatest being .935, and the least .812, and of the clearly artificially deformed or flattened ones about .979, the least being .861, and the greatest 1.32.

These figures show how very much the latitudinal index is exalted by fore and aft compression of the skull, and the almost equally great effect in increasing the vertical height will be seen in the fact that the altitudinal index of the normal skulls is about .843, the greatest being .919, and the least.806, whilst in the compressed ones the altitudinal index rises in the mean to .878, the greatest being .919, and the least .824.

As regards the comparative cubic capacity of the two kinds of skull, I am not able to speak positively, as, in order to determine this with any accuracy, it will be necessary to separate, so far as is possible, the male and female skulls for the reason, first, that the latter are of course much less capacious, and secondly, that in the case of artificially deformed skulls, if it be true as most writers state that it is only the males who are subjected to treatment, no comparison can be instituted unless the latter are eliminated. But so far as my experiments have gone they would have served to confirm the general opinion, that the compression has no effect in diminishing or enlarging the cranial capacitynor is it likely that it should. The mean capacity of the larger skulls, which may be regarded as males, appears, so far as I have gone, to be about 80 cubic inches, equivalent to a brain of about 45 ounces, roughly estimated. This capacity and the measurements above cited show that the crania generally are of small size.*

It will also be seen when comparing the numbers I have given with those afforded by Professor Wilson (p. 222), taken from a series of ancient crania from North American mounds and caves, that they very nearly correspond. In the mound skulls the mean length is given as 6.54 ins., and width 5.67, the cephalic index being .861, and in those from sepulchral caves, as 6.62 x 5.78, with a cephalic index of .873; figures that show clearly enough that even at that distant period there must have been a great similarity between the inhabitants of the western part, at any rate, of North America and of the seaboard regions of South America, and, it may be added, with the modern inhabitants of the same regions.

Besides these brachycephalic crania, which form the bulk of the present collection, there are a few of a more elongated form; but these, however few in number, are of especial interest, opening up as they do the interesting question as to whether there is really more than one type of skull to be found among the ancient This is in accord with the statements of all observers.

Peruvians, and also the still wider one whether there is more than one type peculiar to the American Continent.

As is well known, Dr. Morton was of opinion, and no man's opinion can be more weighty, that there was but one American type of skull, exclusive of course of the Esquimaux, and that of strongly brachycephalic form. According to Morton, the Indian skull "is of a decidedly rounded form. The occipital portion is flattened in the upward direction, and the transverse diameter as measured between the parietal bones is remarkably wide, and often exceeds the longitudinal line." The forehead is low and receding and rarely arched,-a feature that is regarded by Humboldt, Lund and other naturalists as characteristic of the American race and serving to distinguish it from the Mongolian. The general question whether a diversity of type exists among the native races of America down to the present day, need not here be disussed; but I would simply remark that, so far as my own observation of collections goes, there is every reason to believe that the brachycephalic type exemplified in the present collection and shown on a somewhat larger scale, but with precisely the same essential features in the Chinook Indians and in the natives of Vancouver's Island, prevails amongst all the native tribes, at any rate in the seaboard regions of North and South America, from Nootka Sound round the coast of Patagonia and up the east coast, within the historical period, to the Caribee Islands,-whether it extended further north on the Atlantic shores in earlier times I do not know.

With regard to the dolichocephalic type of American skull, and the tribes amongst which it exists in North America, I need merely refer you to Professor Wilson's copious data, at the same time expressing my belief that it will be found to prevail, or to have prevailed, throughout the greater part of the central or east central parts of America, both North and South, from Canada to Tierra del Fuego. The whole question is ably stated and argued by Professor D. Wilson, who, with Mr. J. H. Blake and others, is of opinion that not only are two distinct forms of skull to be found in the ancient cemeteries,-one rounded or globular, and the other elongated,-but also that two distinct types of skull are at the present day to be observed amongst the existing American populations. The evidence to this effect, both as regards the ancient skulls, cited by Professor Wilson, is amply sufficient to decide the point.

The evidence of the existence of a dolichocephalic type afforded in the present collection is not very abundant, but is nevertheless decisive. And if it be true, as is extremely likely, that the practice of artificial deformation of the skull has, in most cases, originated in a desire simply to increase or to add to the