i8g5. NATURAL SCIENCE. 75 



[Polynesian] , are in some islands pure, in others mingled with each 

 other, either in distinct colonies living side by side in the same island, 

 or by intermarriage ; though on the western side of the Pacific region 

 the brachycephalic Malay and Negrito have without doubt exercised 

 an influence in modifying the cranial and other characters of some of 

 the islanders in that region." But Sir William thinks that "there 

 are certain residual quantities of which it is not possible to give 

 a satisfactory explanation, on the supposition that these are the only 

 races which have ever occupied these islands." He refers more 

 especiall}^ to the remarkable megalithic monuments in several of the 

 islands. 



Professor Turner writes, " there is sufficient information to 

 enable me to say that racial differences are not confined to the skull, 

 but occur also in other parts of the skeleton." He does not find 

 " that any one race dominates, in all its characters, over all other 

 races ; or that any one race, in all its characters, is lower than all 

 other races. There does not seem to be a graded arrangement, such 

 as would lead one to say that the white races, which we will assume 

 to be the most highly developed, have been derived, by successive 

 stages of slow and gradual perfecting of structure, from the lowest 

 existing black race, or, indeed, from any one of the existing black 

 races." 



In his charming book " Notes by a Naturalist on the Chal- 

 lenger," Professor Moseley gives numerous original anthropological 

 observations, many of these are of great interest, and they indicate a 

 keen eye and an appreciation of the points of real importance. There 

 is, for example, a suggestive little essay on the metamorphosis of 

 Hawaian gods into hook-like ornaments, and the chapter on the 

 Admiralty Islands is of especial value ; but Moseley has given a 

 more detailed and admirable account of " The Inhabitants of the 

 Admiralty Islands, etc.," in the Joiivn. Anth. Inst., vi., 1877, p. 379. 

 The skulls collected on the occasion of this visit were the first that 

 have been described. A considerable part of Moseley's book is 

 reprinted in First and Second Parts of vol. i. of the " Narrative of 

 the Cruise," prepared by Dr. J. Murray. In these books there is 

 some additional ethnographical information, which is illustrated by a 

 few coloured plates, photographs, and woodcuts. Here, again, the 

 section dealing with the Admiralty Islands is the most complete and 

 the best illustrated (see PI. xvii.) ; it is, in some respects, supple- 

 mentary to Moseley's account. 



A. C. Haddon 



