The results do not agree with the composition of the living population but are apparently near to what might be expected in burials. Taking the sexes apart, the series from the surface shows a somewhat more favorable condition for the men, but worse for the women. Taking the materials, however, regardless of sex, the proportions of ages in the earlier igloos and in the late surface burials are practically identical. This points strongly against the idea of the igloo remains being those of people who either died there of starvation, of an epidemic, of being smothered, or of some other sudden affliction, and to their having been just ordinary burials.
To arrive at something still more definite, if possible, I appealed on the one hand to the United States Census and on the other to Doctor Dublin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, for data as to the distribution of ages among the dead, using the same age-categories as in the case of the "igloo" material. The data furnished by Miss E. Foudray through Dr. Wm. H. Davis, Chief Statistician of the Bureau of the Census, are particularly to the point. They are as follows:
| 20 to 24 | 25 to 44 | 45 to 54 | 55 and over | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males | 17.8 | 54.2 | 15.9 | 12.1 |
| Females | 19.4 | 53.3 | 15.9 | 11.4 |
| Both sexes | 18.6 | 53.7 | 15.9 | 11.8 |
| 20 to 24 | 25 to 44 | 45 to 54 | 55 and over | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males | 13.2 | 43.9 | 21.3 | 21.6 |
| Females | 11.9 | 47.0 | 19.5 | 21.6 |
| Both sexes | 12.6 | 45.4 | 20.4 | 21.6 |
There is a remarkable agreement of these figures with those obtained on both the Igloo and the Barrow surface burial material, except that for the two middle age series the figures are reversed. This may mean an error in the two respective estimates on the Indians, or it may mean that for these two ages the conditions among the Eskimo concerned were better than they were in 1900 among the Alaska Indians.
All the above, together with the details on the orderly treatment of the bodies, and the absence of such conditions as were encountered in the dead villages on St. Lawrence Island (Hooper, Nelson), inclines one to the conclusion that the Igloo remains, however exceptional the method for the Eskimo, were just burials.
Physical Characteristics
The skull.—The most noteworthy feature about the Igloo remains is the marked distinctiveness of the skull. This strikes the observer at the first sight of the specimens, and the impression is only strengthened by detail examination. The skulls are very narrow, long, and high. They differ plainly from anything except occasional individual specimens, either about Barrow or along the rest of the west coast of Alaska, with the possible exception of a few groups of Seward Peninsula. They recall strongly the crania of Labrador and south Greenland. It is the Labrador-Greenland type throughout, men, women, and even the two children. It is a group outside of the range of local variation. It is a strange Eskimo group, either developed here in former times as it developed in Greenland and Labrador, and possibly the Seward Peninsula, or one that had come here from places where such type had already been realized.
The following data (the individual measurements will appear in a later number of the Catalogue of Crania) show the differences between the Igloo and the surface material, the latter both of the Van Valin and of the author's collections, and the valuable Stefánsson material, now at the American Museum, from Point Barrow. They need but little comment. They show clearly on one hand the wholly Eskimo nature of the Igloo skulls, and on the other their distinctness from those of the later burials, both of Barrow and Point Barrow. The vault especially is characteristic—narrow, long, high, more or less keel-shaped. The face in general is much more alike in the three groups; nevertheless its absolute height and breadth in the Igloo series are slightly smaller than in the other two, and there are minor differences in the orbits and the palate.