168. 



DESCRIPTION OF TWO TASMANIAN ABORIGINAL 

 CRANIA. 



By W. Lodewyck Crowther, D.S.O., M.B, 



and 



Clive Lord (Curator of the Tasmanian Museum). 



Plates XXIV. and XXV. 



(Read 10th October, 1921.) 



In a previous paper (P. and P. Roy. Soc. Tas., 1920) we 

 compiled a complete list of the osteological specimens, re- 

 lating to the Tasmanian Aborigines, contained in the Tas- 

 manian Museum.* 



Two of the specimens mentioned in the published list 

 present features worthy of comment, and in the present 

 instance we desire to place on record a short description 

 of the specimens catalogued as No. A. 298 and No. A. (E.H.) 

 558. 



Both are crania which have been added to the Museum 

 collection in recent years. The former was discovered at 

 Tasman Island, and presented to the Museum by the Marine 

 Board of Hobart. It was found in a penguin (Eudyptula) 

 rookery, and was not in association with any other bones, 

 careful search in this direction yielding nothing. Apart 

 from the anatomical details of the skull, the locality of its 

 discovery is of interest. 



Tasman Island is in reality an enormous outcrop of 

 rock lying off the South-East corner of Tasmania. Its cliffs, 

 in most cases, rise for hundreds of feet sheer from the 

 sea. The coast of the mainland, for several miles in both 

 directions from the island, presents a massive bastion of 

 diabase — an inhospitable coast upon which the surges of the 

 Southern Ocean beat with relentless force. Between the 

 island and the mainland the narrow channel is usually seeth- 

 ing with the force of the tide rip. 



In view of the foregoing, one cannot but wonder how 

 the Tasmanian woman, whose skull is now included in our 

 national ethnological collection, was able to reach the island 



*Since that list was published the Tasmanian Museum has obtained 

 five additional crania, three by purchase and two by exchange. 



