solution was coloured slightly brown, seeming to show, that besides the formation of some oxalate of ammonia, in this instance, a soluble matter also was produced, which, it may be conjec tured, is analogous to that which exists in the guano, imparting colour to it.

Before concluding, I would wish to say a few words relative to the tests of guano,-the means of distinguishing between the genuine and the spurious kinds. Taking into account its origin, and that deposits of it can be found only where no rain falls, the inference seems now to be obvious, either, if old, that it must abound in oxalate of ammonia; or if, comparatively of little age, in lithate of ammonia; or if not of great age, it must contain a notable quantity of both these substances. These salts are easily detected, and the first mentioned, very readily by the microscope.

The adulteration of the genuine kind, to which the temptation is great, cannot be so easily detected. I fear it cannot be accomplished, excepting by means of chemical analysis; and that the farmer must hold himself dependent on the integrity of the merchant; and if he would wish to avoid the chances of imposition, he must purchase only of the merchant of established name, and at the regular price.

As guano appears to be constantly exhaling ammonia on exposure to the atmosphere, to prevent loss and deterioration, it cannot be, before use, too carefully excluded from the air; and on the same account, it ought not be applied as a manure, whilst vegetation is inactive, but rather at the moment of its coming into activity, and when in progress, according to the Peruvian manner of bestowing it on the plant, rather than on the soil.

I have alluded, in the beginning of this notice, to the spirit of enterprise displayed in the importation of guano. I have since learnt, that, in procuring the African kind, that which I have examined, no ordinary degree of this quality has been exerted, accompanied by a boldness of daring, and a perseverance worthy of record. The importer, Mr Rae, informs me, in a letter with which he has just favoured me, that his son is the discoverer of the guano-islet or islets, for it would appear that there are several of them, so remarkably situated.

That he was led to go in search of them in the beginning of last year, from remembering having, when a boy at school, looked into the sea-journal of an American whaler, in which mention was made of such spots. And that his first attempt was unsuccessful, and nearly proved fatal to himself and all concerned, he and his boat's crew, in exploring the islets, having almost perished from want of water, before they could rejoin their little "surveying vessel ;" and then (she, too, being in want of water), having had to sail 1500 miles before they could obtain a fresh supply.

This is a meagre outline of a hazardous and most important enterprise. The details of it, it is to be hoped, will be pub lished; they can hardly fail exciting interest; and they may convey valuable information, either directly or indirectly, on many important points connected with the physical history of a region of which at present so little is known. The result of the voyage, the director of it may well be proud of, contemplating, as he writes to me, by the introduction of some thousands of tons of productive manure, increase of fertility to our soil, to the extent of " producing three bushels of corn where only two were previously grown."

THE OAKS, AMBLESIDE,

February 29, 1844.

On the Physical Characters of the Esquimaux. By RICHARD KING, M.D. (Communicated to this Journal by the Society.)

Read before the Ethnological Society, London.

Of the circumpolar family, the Esquimaux branch is the most remarkable, owing to the vast extent of country over which it is spread. This race of fishermen inhabit the whole of the northern coast of North America, and as far as Prince William's Sound in the Pacific, and the coast of Labrador in the Atlantic, their western boundary being St Lawrence Island, and their eastern Greenland. Although, for a considerable period, Labrador has been the most southern limit of the Esquimaux, in the direction of the Atlantic, it would appear that, in early times, their migration extended further

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south, including the occupation, as a summer residence, of the Island of Newfoundland. The Abbé Raynal expressly states, “that no savages have ever been seen on that island, except some Esquimaux from the continent in the hunting season," an opinion I had formed, before this passage in the Abbé Raynal's work came under my observation, from a careful study of the narratives of the early travellers in search of a north-west passage. "Sebastian Cabot," writes Purchas, 'brought to England three savages taken in Newfoundland,* who were clothed in beast's skins, and did eat raw flesh, and, in their demeanour, like to brute beasts, whom the king kept a time after; of the which, upon two years after, I saw two apparelled, after the manner of Englishmen, in Westminster Palace, which, at that time, I could not discover from Englishmen till I learned what they were; but, as for speech, I heard none of them utter one word." The account given by Whitbourne of the natives of Newfoundland,† is in accordance with the known habits of the Esquimaux, but has no reference to the Red man of America. Whitbourne has thus expressed himself:-"The naturall inhabitants of the country, as they are but few in number, so are they something rude and savage; having neither knowledge of God, nor living under any kind of civil government. They live altogether in the north and west part of the country, which is seldom frequented by the English. But the French and Biscayans, who resort thither for the whale-fishery, and also for the cod fish, report them to be an ingenious and tractable people (being well used). They are ready to assist them, with great labour and patience, in the killing, cutting, and boyling of whale, and making the traine oyle, without expectation of other reward, than a little bread or some such small hire.” Lieutenant Roger Curtis, in a paper addressed to the Royal Society, informs us that the Esquimaux were settled at different places upon the sea-coast down to the river St John's; but for many years past, whether owing to the quarrels with the mountaineers, or the encroachments of the Europeans, they have taken up their residence far to the north. O'Reilly

has made the same remark,* probably a quotation from Lieut. Roger Curtis. Thorsin, the Icelander, describes the people of Winland as of low stature, having boats covered with leather. Now, it has been contended, and very ably, that Winland was south of the Gulph of St Lawrence; and since we have been able to trace the Esquimaux thus far, it is by no means improbable that they took advantage of the mighty St Lawrence and penetrated inland; for near the Falls of Niagara have been discovered numerous tumuli, attributed by the Red man, who does not adopt this mode of sepulture, to an extinct race that inhabited the country before him. Dr Hodgkin, with his usual intelligence and research, examined a skull exhumed from one of these tumuli, and pointed out its strong resemblance to the skull of a known Esquimaux. A cast of the former and the original of the latter, is to be seen in the Museum of Guy's Hospital, arranged by Dr Hodgkin, a museum deservedly the pride of this country and the admiration of foreigners.

Of that all-important branch of science-statistics, in relation to the Esquimaux, our knowledge is but slight. The population of the north-west coast of America, from Prince William's Sound to Point Barrow, was estimated, in 1822, at 1200; of Regent's Inlet, in 1830, at 160; of Melville Peninsula, in 1823, at 219; and of Labrador, in 1773, at 1623. It appears evident, then, as far as our information extends, that the northwest corner of America, Labrador, and Greenland, are better inhabited than the American boundary of the Polar Sea, and that the population gradually increases in the direction from east to west, except in the neighbourhood of the Mackenzie, where perhaps from the resources of the country, compared with any other given area, it is most abundantly peopled.

The Esquimaux all speak radically the same language, and even where there exist dialectrical differences, they are so slight, that a native, whether he is located on the shores of the Pacific or of the Atlantic, is able to make himself understood throughout all the various and widely spread communities.

The author of "Researches into the Physical History of

Mankind"* has made no allusion to the form of the skull of the Esquimaux in his first edition; but in that of 1826, there is a description agreeing with a skull which he has figured, and which figure and description appear in his recent work, entitled the "Natural History of Man." The letter-press runs as follows: "The face is of a lozenge shape, rising like one of the faces of a pyramid almost to a point,"-and so it is represented. But a comparison with four skulls figured in Blumenbach's Decades, four in Morton's Crania Americana, one in the collection of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, one in the Museum of Guy's Hospital, and twelve in the possession of the phrenologist Deville, entirely contradicts Dr Prichard's remarks. It is true that O'Reilly has given a similar description to that of Dr Prichard. "The forehead," in the opinion of that traveller, in allusion to the Esquimaux of the island of Disco, "and the side of the head above the temples are greatly depressed; the crown is elevated considerably; and the back of the head is depressed as the forehead. The smaller end of a hen's egg presents a familiar resemblance to their cranium." But after inspecting fourteen skulls, and representations of eight more, I am led to believe that O'Reilly and Dr Prichard have been describing the same skull, which owes its peculiarity to some accidental cause; and since O'Reilly wrote in 1818, and Dr Prichard in 1826, it is probable that the Doctor sought for, and obtained, the skull which O'Reilly has described. However this may be, it is certain that the skull figured by Dr Prichard cannot be taken as a type of this Arctic family. It would be as incorrect, with the materials before us, to agree with Dr Prichard, as, with our knowledge of the custom of artificially modifying the form of the head practised by the natives of North-western America, to fall in with the views of Professor Tiedemann, and Mr Pentland, that the skulls found in the ancient graves, called huacas, in the great alpine valley of Titicaca, were moulded so by nature. The Esquimaux, in my opinion, strongly exemplify the broad-faced and moderately-vaulted character of the skull classified as Mongolian. The most striking characteristic is the outward projection of

Dr Prichard.

↑ O'Reilly's Greenland, and the North-West Passage, p. 62.