318 ABORIGINES OF EASTERX PROVIXCE. 



Skulls of Easter>- Province " Strandloopers." 



In the Albany Museum are a feAv human skulls belonging- 

 to the abong-mals of the Eastein Province. The most remark^ 

 able IS one unearthed, along with the incomplete skeleton, 

 from an old burial place on the golf links, Port Alfred. I am 

 informed that the corjise had been biuied in foetal position, 

 and that a definite chamber had been excavated for its 

 reception in the calcareous sandstone. The individual was 

 an elderly man, and from the natme of his teeth, the crowns 

 of which are worn quite flat, it may perhaps be infen-ed that 

 his food had been mixed Avith sand, and thus he was probably 

 of " strandlooping " habits. However, the skull (PI. XXXI) 

 in some respects is very different from that of a strandlooper 

 as defined by Shrubsall,* or from the Bushman as described 

 by Sir William Turner.! Moreover, it is much larger than 

 the ordinary ]3ush skull. 



It is prognathous subnasal) y ; the forehead is retreating 

 as well as narrow^, frontal eminences indistinct; the occiput 

 presents a conspicuous protuberance, and the skull is long. 

 Seen from above, the parietal eminences are not prominent, 

 though the breadth there is much greater than more 

 anteriorly, and in this respect it probably differs from Kaffir 

 skulls of unmixed origin — in norma occipitalis, the pentagon 

 is not so well defined as in Bushman skulls, and its sides are 

 not flattened. The brow ridges are well developed; on the 

 right side is a supra-orbital foramen, on the left side a notch ; 

 orbits rectangular, with the long axes oblique. The face 

 is very broad, the cheek-bones strongly projecting. The 

 lower margin of the nasal orifice is rounded off and indistinct. 

 Xasal bones aie broken, but evidently small and obliquely 

 inclined, the nose being flattened greatly but not to an 

 extreme extent, and the maxillary does not encroach on the 

 bridge. Frontal and squamosal are separated, temporal 

 fossae ill-filled. There is a very strongly developed temporal 

 lidge ; the vertex is not flattened. The mastoid process is 

 moderately large, and the supra-mastoid groove is shallow 

 and broad. 



The mandible (PI. XXXII) is a most characteristic feature 

 of this specimen. The ascending ramus is greatly elongated 

 in the antero-posterior direction, but is short in a vertical 

 direction. This character, as first pointed out by Professor 

 Rolleston,+ is one which at once serves to distingiiish Bush 

 from Kaffir mandibles, and in the specimen before us witnesses 

 definitely to a non-Kaffir element. In Bush mandibles the 

 ascending ramus is always comparatively broad and low as 

 compared with those of Kaffirs. 



The least breadth of the ramus (-40 mm.) far exceeds 

 that of any specimen recorded from South Africa. _ In six 

 Bushmen skulls recorded by Turner, the range is only 



* " Annals of South African Museum," vols, v and viii,. . 

 t lieport of H.M.S. " Challenger," " Zoology," vol. x. 

 + In " Matal)eland and Victoria P'alls," by F. Oates. 



