ess to their place of abode, have been less influenced
by the Spaniards, and for this reason retain more of their primitive
customs, and their dress at this day resembles closely that which
envelops the bodies in his possession, both in the texture and the
form.

Doctor Morton says that these mummies from Peru have the same
peculiarities in the form of the skull, the same delicacy of the bones,
and the same remarkable smallness of the hands and feet, with that
found in the sepulchre at San Francisco. He says, too, from an
examination of nearly four hundred skulls of individuals belonging to
older nations of Mexico and Peru, and of skulls dug from the mounds of
our western country, that he finds them all formed on the same model,
and conforming in a remarkable manner to that brought from San
Francisco; and that this cranium has the same _type_ of physical
conformation which has been bestowed with amazing uniformity upon all
the tribes on our continent, from Canada to Patagonia, and from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. He adds, that it affords additional
support to the opinion which he has always entertained, that,
notwithstanding some slight variation in physical conformation, and
others of a much more remarkable character in intellectual attainments,
all the aboriginal Americans of all known epochs belong to the same
great and distinctive race.

If this opinion is correct, and I believe it--if this skeleton does
present the same _type_ of physical conformation with all the tribes of
our continent--then, indeed, do these crumbling bones declare, as with
a voice from the grave, that we cannot go back to any ancient nation of
the Old World for the builders of these cities; they are not the works
of people who have passed away, and whose history is lost, but of the
same great _race_ which, changed, miserable, and degraded, still clings
around their ruins.

To return to the ruins of San Francisco. We devoted two days more to
excavating, but did not make any farther discoveries.

Among the ruins were circular holes in the ground like those at Uxmal.
The mouth of one was broken and enlarged, and I descended by a ladder
into a dome-shaped chamber, precisely the same as at Uxmal, but a
little larger. At Uxmal the character of these was mere matter of
conjecture; but at this short distance, the Indians had specific
notions in regard to their objects and uses, and called them chultones,
or wells. In all directions, too, we