224 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 



dilated, but not especially flattened, noses, and 

 lips which, though prominent, are eminently 

 flexible. 



The skulls of these people are always long and 

 narrow, with a smaller development of the frontal 

 sinuses than usually corresponds with such largely 

 developed brow ridges. An Australian skull of a 

 round form, or one the transverse diameter of 

 which exceeds eight-tenths of its length, has 

 never been seen. These people, in a word, are 

 eminently "dolichocephalic," or. long-headed; but, 

 with this one limitation, their crania present con- 

 siderable variations, some being comparatively 

 high and arched, while others are more remarkably 

 depressed than almost any other human skulls. 

 The female pelvis differs comparatively little from 

 the European; but in the pelves of male Austra- 

 lians which I have examined, the antero-posterior 

 and transverse diameters approach equality more 

 nearly than is the case in Europeans. 



No Australian tribe has ever been known to 

 cultivate the ground,* to use metals, pottery, or 

 any kind of textile fabric. They rarely construct 

 huts. Their means of navigation are limited to 

 rafts or canoes, made of sheets of bark. Clothing, 

 except skin cloaks for protection from cold, is a 



[* At Cape York we found that the natives had learned 

 from their Papuan neighbours to grow a little coarse 

 tobacco; and, elsewhere, yams are said to be grown, but 

 hardly cultivated. Plaiting, basket-making, and netting 

 are practised. — 1894.] 



