Scott. — Osteology of the Maori and Moriori. 



15 



as normal in this respect, as a complete and early obliteration 

 of the sagittal suture has checked materially the gro\Yth in 

 width of its brain-case. In fifteen of these male phtenozygous 

 skulls, though the zygomatic arches are visible from above, 

 the space between them and the bones of the temporal fossa 

 is covered and invisible. In thirty the arches are seen free 

 and open. The projection is less in the female skulls, and 

 three of them are cryptozygous. 



Bad-nasal Length, or Cranio Facial Axis. — The average 

 length of this important dimension and its variations are 

 shown in the following table : — 



In the paper on the cranial characters of the Fiji Islanders, 

 already referred to, Sir "William Flower gives a table showing 

 the average length of this line in several races, both savage 

 and civilised. In the male Esquimaux it is 106-lmm.; in the 

 male Fijian, 104mm. In none of the other examples given 

 does the length equal that given above as the average for 

 the male of the Maori race, while the average for the female 

 Maoris of my series exceeds that of the females of all the races 

 included in the table. 



If we compare the basi-nasal length with the distance 

 beticeen hasion and nasion, as measured over the vertex in the 

 middle line, we find little variety in the different groups. 

 Expressing the lower line as a percentage of the upper curve, 

 we get for the Ngaitahu, 25-3 ; for the group from the south- 

 west coast of the North Island, 25-5 ; for the east coast group, 

 24-9; and for tlie skulls from Auckland and the Bay of 

 Islands, 25-2. 



Professor Cleland,"'= and, following him, Sir WilKam Turner,! 

 make for purposes of comparison a somewhat different divi- 

 sion of this mesial vertical circumference. Instead of using the 



* "An Inquiry into the Variations of the Human Skull' 

 phical Transactions, 1870. 



t " ' Challenger' Eeports " : Human Crania. 



Philoso- 



