THE NOSE_Anthropological Survey in Alaska

Equally as engaging as the whole face of the Eskimo skull is the

cranial nose. Our data throw much light on this feature also.

Where the dimensions of the whole face are altered by some cause the

nose can not remain unaffected. This is especially true of its height,

which correlates directly and closely with that of the face proper;

the correlation of the breadth of the nose with that of the face is

weaker and more irregular, but not absent where not counteracted by

other factors. Accordingly with the high Eskimo upper face there is

found also a high nose, both being the highest known to anthropometry.

But the nasal breadth, instead of responding to the considerable facial

breadth, has become smaller, until in some of the Eskimo groups it is

the smallest of all known human groups. There is plainly another potent

factor in action here. This factor could conceivably be connected

simply with the above-average growth of the facial bones; but if this

were so then individuals with smaller development of these bones

ought to have broader noses, and vice versa. This point can readily

be tested. Taking the largest and best cranial series, that of St.

Lawrence Island, and selecting the skulls with the smallest and the

largest faces, the facts come out as follows:

----------------------+------------------------+------------------------

| Smallest development | Largest development

| of face | of face

+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------

----------------------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------

10 males | 7.52 | 13.64 | 2.37 | 8.46 | 14.79| 2.49

10 females | 6.81 | 12.56 | 2.37 | 7.54 | 14.02| 2.40

Male | | | _22.4_ | | | _21.4_

Female | | | _24.5_ | | | _22.2_

----------------------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------

The above data show that while the narrow nose in the Eskimo is to some

extent affected by the large development in these people of the facial

bones, yet there must be also other factors.

But if not wholly connected with the development of the facial bones,

then some of the causes of the narrow nose in the Eskimo must either be

inherited from far back or must be due to influences outside the face

itself.

Pushing the character far back would be no explanation of its original

cause, but it may be shown that such a procedure would not be

justified. In the following important table are given the now available

data on the breadth of the nasal aperture of the Eskimo, group by

group and area by area, and these data show that narrow nose is by no

means universal in this family. The nasal aperture is broader in the

southwest and midwest than in the northwest, and broader in the latter

region than in the Arctic north, and the northeast. In general it is

seen that the farther northward and northeastward the narrower the

nose, until it reaches beyond that of all other human groups; while in

the west and southwest it gradually approaches until it reaches the

nasal breadth of the Indian. And that this latter condition is not

due to Indian admixture is shown by the fact that among the broadest

noses are those of the Eskimo in Siberia and those on the St. Lawrence

Island, where there was no known contact with the Indian, while the

narrower noses are along the midwestern coast, where Indian admixture

might have been possible.