6 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA. 



Subbrachycephalic, prognathous, just above leptorhine. 

 Glabella prominent, about No. 3 of Broca's scale, lnion scarcely 

 developed. 



This skull is unusually broad for a Melanesian, and has a some- 

 what low nasal index ; it agrees, however, very well with No. 1193 

 of Prof. Flower's Catalogue * (" The cranium of a Papuan, from one 

 of the islands in Torres Strait, <$ "), and its extreme prognathism 

 shows that it undoubtedly belongs to the Melanesian race. It has 

 undergone considerable occipital flattening on the left side, either 

 from sleeping on a hard wooden pillow or some similar cause ; and 

 this has no doubt caused the brain-case to be abnormally broad. 



The present specimen is said to be the skull of the last chief of 

 the island of Nagheer, and is ornamented with two long strings of 

 glass beads and tassels of red calico hanging from the zygomata. It 

 has its orbits filled with red clay, on which are fastened oblong bits 

 of mother-of-pearl for eyes ; there is an artificial nose carved in 

 wood and painted red, and a red band of paint passes across the 

 forehead. The right upper canine, lost after death but before the 

 preparation of the skull, has been replaced by a wooden tooth. The 

 four posterior teeth in the right lower jaw have all been lost during 

 life, and their alveoli have quite closed up. 



2. Skull of Torres-Straits Islander. (Plates I. & II. fig. B.) 



Male [?]. Adult. 



" Native woman of Nagheer Island, Torres Straits." — R. W. C 



Length 178 ; gl. occ. 181. Breadth 136. Height 137. Maxi- 

 mum frontal breadth 112 ; minimum frontal breadth 95. 

 Horizontal circumferences — preauricular 230, total 503. 

 Transverse arcs — frontal 283, bregmatic 300, parietal 320, 

 occipital 207. Longitudinal arcs — frontal 130, parietal 126, 

 occipital 112. Foramen magnum — length 38, width 31. Basi- 

 nasal length 103. Basialveolar length 105. Bizygomatic 

 breadth 129. Height of — face 86, malar 24, alveolus 16. Auri- 

 culo-orbital length 68. Nasal height 49, width 26. Maxilla 

 — length 61, breadth 63. 



Mandible — bicondylar width 117, bigoniac width 93, symphysial 

 height 31, molar height 24, coronoid height 52, gonio-sym- 

 physial length SS. Ramus — height 64, antero-posterior 

 breadth 31. Bigoniac arc 197. 



Indices — latitudinal 76-4, altitudinal 77*0, frontal 69*9, gnathic 

 101-9, nasal 53-1. 



Subdolichoeephalic, hypsicephalic, mesognathous, and platyrhine. 



Glabella low, about No. 1. No inion. Median line of nose very 

 prominent. 



Similarly prepared to the last, the only differences being that 

 the strings of beads from the zygomata are shorter and without 



* Op. cit. p. -2-1-2 



