Scott. — Osteology of the Maori and Moriori. 17 



Characters of Cranial Vault. — In the majority of skulls 

 the vertex is roof-like, with a more or less sharp and prominent 

 median ridge in the parietal region, and a flattening, or some- 

 times hollowing, of the parietal bones between this ridge and 

 their eminences. Some, however, have a rounded vault, and 

 intermediate forms are met with. The outline of the longest 

 skulls as seen from above is a very regular oval, the parietal 

 eminences in these not being distinct. In most skulls, how- 

 ever, the parietal eminences are sharp and prominent, and, as 

 they lie towards the back of the brain-case, the norma verti- 

 calis is obovate. Some skulls are pentagonal, as seen from 

 behind. The forehead is, as a rule, moderately high and 

 rounded, and any such pronounced flattening of the frontal 

 region as is so characteristic of Moriori skulls is rare. A 

 post-bregmatic depression was noted in seven skulls. The 

 obeHon was markedly depressed in two. The relative width 

 of the parietal and frontal regions has been already described. 

 The greatest transverse width is most often, in 36-9 per cent., 

 on the parietal bones between the eminences and the lower 

 border. In 29-8 per cent, it lies at the level of the parietal 

 eminences, and in an equal number of cases at the squamous 

 suture. I have noted it as being on the squamosals in two 

 skulls, and in one on the suture between the mastoid portion 

 of the temporal and the parietal. One skull alone showed the 

 characteristic form due to early hydrocephalus. 



The glabella is, as a rule, in the male skulls large and pro- 

 minent, and the superciliary ridges long and curved. The 

 temporal fossce are large, and the temporal ridges usually run 

 above or across the parietal eminences. 



Sutures. — The coronal suture is generally simple, except 

 for a short distance above the stephanion, where it is in most 

 skulls deeply serrated. The sagittal suture, though not so 

 simple as the coronal, is not complex. Nos. 2, 3, and 4 of 

 Broca's scale would in most cases represent its serration. 

 The lambdoidal is, as in Europeans, the most complicated 

 suture. In one case it was, however, exceedingly simple, 

 showing scarcely any serration. 



The obliteration of the sutures of the vault does not seem 

 to follow any very definite order, though on the whole these 

 skulls lend support to the view that in savage races the closure 

 begins antei-iorly. In tv/enty-four skulls in which the ob- 

 literation of the coronal and lambdoidal sutures is partial it 

 is further advanced in the coronal than in the lambdoidal in 

 fifteen ; in six the process is equally advanced in both ; and 

 in three the lambdoidal is in advance. The sagittal is 

 in advance of the coronal in this respect in the proportion 

 of eleven to six. In the sixteen cases which show partial 

 obliteration of the sagittal suture the closure has begun 

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