ON SOME FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN 329 



subcontinents on the one hand, and to America on the 

 other, brachycephaly and orthognathism gradually diminish, 

 and are replaced by dolichocephaly and prognathism, less, 

 however, on the American Continent (throughout the 

 whole length of which a rounded type of skull prevails 

 largely, but not exclusively) * than in the Pacific region, 

 where, at length, on the Australian Continent and in the 

 adjacent islands, the oblong skull, the projecting jaws, 

 and the dark skin reappear ; with so much departure, in 

 other respects, from the Negro type, that ethnologists 

 assign to these people the special title of ' Negritoes/ 



The Australian skull is remarkable for its narrowness 

 and for the thickness of its walls, especially in the region 

 of the supraciliary ridge, which is frequently, though not 

 by any means invariably, solid throughout, the frontal 

 sinuses remaining undeveloped. The nasal depression, 

 again, is extremely sudden, so that the brows overhang 

 and give the countenance a particularly lowering, threaten* 

 ing expression. The occipital region of the skull, also, 

 not unfrequently becomes less prominent ; so that it not 

 only fails to project beyond a line drawn perpendicular to 

 the hinder extremity of the glabello-occipital line, but 

 even, in some cases, begins to shelve away from it, forwards, 

 almost immediately. In consequence of this circumstance, 

 the parts of the occipital bone which lie above and below the 

 tuberosity make a much more acute angle with one another 

 than is usual, whereby the hinder part of the base of the skull 

 appears obliquely truncated. Many Australian skulls have 

 a considerable height, quite equal to that of the average of 

 any other race, but there are others in which the cranial 

 roof becomes remarkably depressed, the skull, at the same 

 time, elongating so much that, probably, its capacity is 

 not diminished. The majority of skulls possessing these 

 characters, which I have seen, are from the neighbourhood 

 of Port Adelaide in South Australia, and have been used 

 by the natives as water vessels ; to which end the face has 

 been knocked away, and a string passed through the vacuity 

 and the occipital foramen, so that the skull was suspended 

 by the greater part of its basis. 



Figure 30 represents the contour of a skull of this kind 

 from Western Port, with the jaw attached, and of the Nean- 



* See Dr. D. Wilson's valuable paper " On the supposed pre- 

 valence of one Cranial Type throughout the American aborigines." 

 Canadian Journal, vol. ii., 1857. 



