_Southwestern and midwestern_
(5)
Southwestern Alaska 2.50
(31)
Indian Point (Siberia) 2.48
(5)
Chukchee 2.47
(6)
Pilot Station, Lower Yukon 2.45
(280)
St. Lawrence Island 2.42
(29)
Pastolik 2.41
(13)
Hooper Bay 2.39
(10)
Mumtrak 2.38
(6)
Cape Nome and Port Clarence 2.38
(23)
Nelson Island 2.37
(9)
Togiak and vicinity 2.36
(4)
Yukon Delta 2.34
(107)
Nunivak Island 2.33
(11)
Little Diomede Island 2.32
(13)
St. Michael Island 2.21
_Northwestern_
(3)
Kotzebue 2.41
(34)
Wales 2.37
(20)
Shishmaref 2.36
(56)
Barrow 2.35
(211)
Point Hope 2.33
(92)
Point Barrow 2.30
(48)
Igloos, north of Barrow 2.30
_Northern and northeastern_
(9)
Smith Sound 2.29
(15)
Northern Arctic 2.26
(14)
Southampton Island 2.25
(29)
Baffin Land and vicinity 2.25
(98)
Greenland 2.23
(7)
Hudson Bay and vicinity 2.19
It is hardly possible, therefore, to assume that a narrow nose is an
_ancient_ inheritance of the Eskimo. From the facts now at hand it
seems much more probable that the Eskimo nose or respiratory nasal
aperture was not originally very narrow, but that it gradually acquired
this character as the people extended farther north and northeastward;
and there appears to be but one potent factor that could influence
this development and that increases from south to north, namely, cold.
A narrowing of the aperture can readily be understood as a protective
development for the throat and the organs of respiration.
It is not easy to see how the bony structures respond to the effects of
cold or heat, but that they do, particularly where these are aggravated
by moisture, has long been appreciated, and shown fairly conclusively
through studies on the nasal index by Thomson and later by Thomson
and Buxton.[154] An even more satisfactory study would have been that
of the nasal breadth alone. Perhaps the normal variation with the
elimination of the less fit are the main agencies.
The next two tables show other interesting conditions. The first of
these, seen best from the more general data, are the relations of the
nasal dimensions and index in the two sexes. The females in all the
three large groupings have a higher nasal index than the males. This is
a general condition among the Indians as well as in other races. It is
usually due to a relative shortness of the female nose. This condition
is very plain in the Eskimo. The female nose is actually narrower than
the male, due to correlation with shorter stature and lesser facial
breadth, yet the index is higher. The reason can most simply be shown
by comparing the general mean nasal breadth and height in the two
sexes. The breadth in the female is approximately 96.2 per cent of that
in the male; the height is only 92.7 per cent.