BIMANA. 



227 



Skull of Tasmaniau. 



that on the opposite side, is greater ; the vertical admeasurement is much 

 the same as in the skulls of Europeans and Alfourous." 



Taking the Tasmanians, or natives of Van Diemen's Land, as ex- 

 amples of the genuine Papou, the following description ot a skull of one 

 of this race, a male, from the western coast of that country (in the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, London), may be compared with Lesson's 



details respecting that of the Ma- 

 layo-Papuan, from which it recedes 

 by several degrees toward the Ne- 

 gro, and is, consequently, still more 

 than that of the hybrid Papuan re- 

 moved from the European form : 

 The forehead is low, and compressed 

 at the sides, the space for the tem- 

 poral muscle being flat ; the coronal 

 suture only just touches the sphenoid 

 bone ; the orbits are quadrate, with 

 a strongly-marked superciliary ridge, 

 and large prominences, indicating 

 the frontal sinuses : the top of the head rises in a longitudinal ridge from 

 the forehead to the occiput ; and from this ridge the skull slopes, like 

 the roof of a house, to the middle of the parietal bones, which there 

 project boldly : the cheek-bones are prominent : there is an abrupt notch, 

 or sinking, at the union of the nasal bones to the frontal ; but the nasal 

 228 bones are short, and the nasal orifice 



is large and wide ; as is the orifice of 

 the posterior nares also : the depth 

 of the osseous palate is considerable ; 

 the lower jaw is thick and deep ; the 

 posterior angle of the ramus, instead 

 of being acute, is moderately rounded ; 

 and the base of the ramus is arched, 

 so that, placed on a level surface, 

 neither the posterior angle nor the 

 point of the chin touch it ; the alve- 

 olar processes of the upper jaw are 

 skuii of Fejee islander. projecting. From the centre of the 



occipital condyle to the alveolar ridge, between 'the two middle incisors, 

 the distance is four inches and a quarter; the posterior development 

 of the skull (measuring from the centre of the condyle), nearly four 

 inches. 



The foregoing sketch (fig. 228) is from the skull of a Fejee Islander, in 

 the Royal College of Surgeons. The forehead is small, and laterally com- 



