Note 153 — Chapter II

General Thomas gives the following account of this form of skull discovered by him, p. 657: “It is unlike that of any human being to-day alive on this continent; the frontal bone being low, receding, growing narrow and pinched from the brows up; the top of the head depressed in the centre. The cavity of the cranium is full seven inches long, and a scant four and a half inches wide. The orbital ridges or eyebrows are excessively developed, like those of the great Gibbon monkey. In fact the whole skull resembles that of the great Gibbon monkey. The malar or cheek bones run down very low and deep toward the lower jaw, are set very far to the front, and are not wide at top, but widen very much toward the bottom. The nose, and here is the anomaly, is much more aquiline than that of the Indian. The superior maxillary is one-third deeper and much more prominent than the Indian’s. The inferior maxillary is of uncommon prominence, depth, and power, far exceeding that of the Indian. The mouth is narrow and long, more dog-shaped than the Indian’s. The foramen magnum or aperture at base of skull, where the spinal cord enters the head, is peculiarly small. The condyloid processes are full, oblong, flat on the working surfaces, and at such an angle as to set the head upward and back more than any race we know to-day on this continent. Set one of these skulls, without the lower jaw, on the table, and a line drawn from the upper jaw perpendicularly upward would be a good inch and a half in front of the forehead. Set on the lower jaw and it would be two inches.” Mr. R. D. Guttgisal, formerly an engineer on the Mexican Central Railroad, in connection with some friends, opened a mound at Chihuahua, on the line of that railroad. The skulls resembled those I have described (so he informs me) in every particular. He especially remembers the somewhat bird-shaped head, and the excessively small foramen magnum. The bodies were not interred horizontally there, but leaning backward as if in a rocking-chair. Professor H. H. Smith, University of Pennsylvania, has one of the skulls.