PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DENES. 63

mentary stage of formation, being chiefly remarkable, perhaps, for their
diminutive pug-noses with extraordinarily depressed bridges. As will be seen
by the accompanying illustration “Northern Maids”, their eyes are sometimes
set quite obliquely. Among the Carriers of the far west I know of even more
striking examples of that Mongolian characteristic.

But for a regular Mongoloid cast of the entire face we must turn to
the more southern tribe of the Sarcees. Owing to its peculiar position among
the Blackfeet, this band cannot claim unmixed Déné blood. The face is still
oval, especially in the men, but the features are stretched, the facial edges
softened down, the lips thicker and more classical, the nose narrower at the
nostrils and the cheek bones even more prominent.

In the West.

In the west a still greater diversity of type coincides with a difference
of tribe. Thus all the groups which have commingled with the alien races of
the coast, such as the Chilcotins, the Carriers, the Babines and the western
Nahanais, have almost exchanged the prototypical Déné facies for a roundness
of head and face which, in some cases, degenerates into an unbecoming
quadrilateral formation. A portion of the Carriers are still above the average
in stature, though many of them are quite short. They are stoutly built, with
coarse features, thick lips, heavy chins, noses straight but too narrow from
the bridge down and too distended at the base, and indices more brachy-
cephalic or at least mesocephalic than otherwise.

The Chilcotins, who are coterminous with them, are of lower stature,
broad-chested, with square shoulders, heavy features and flattish faces, while
the Babines, who resemble them as to size and height, are remarkable for
the rotundity of their heads and the thickness of their lips. There can be no
doubt that Carriers and Babines have an appreciable quota of Tsimpsian
blood in their veins, and the same is as true of the Chilcotins with regard
to the Kwakwiutl of the west and the Salish of the south. The western
Nahanais are perhaps of still less homogenous origin, as their facial appearance
and language amply testify. In their case the associates in procreation were
the Tlinget of the Coast.

On the other hand, the Sékanais, having kept the Déné type less dis-
figured by commiscegenation with alien stocks, have wiry limbs, fine delicate
features, well formed and at times rather high noses, much narrower than
with their western congeners, their lips slightly protruding and very small
eyes deeply sunk in their sockets. Their size and weight are certainly below
the average, though | have seen several men among them who were over six
feet in height, and some women who where proportionately tall.

Obesity, as a rule, is unknown among all the Déné tribes, as is also
baldness. It is therefore not a little strange that the ranks of the slender