NO. II MELANESIANS AND AUSTRALIANS HRDLICKA 9 



in one case a wall of stones, in the other a wall of bricks. All this, 

 as well as what will follow on the subject of " blacks " in North 

 America, will receive consideration in the critical part of this paper. 



THE LAGOA SANTA SKULLS 



In 1835-44, in certain caves of the state of Minas Geraes, Brazil, 

 and in association with the bones of extinct as well as still living 

 animals, P. W. Lund, a noted Danish naturalist, found a series of 

 remains of human skeletons." 



These remains included 17 or 18 more or less imperfect skulls, one 

 of which came to be preserved in the Historical and Geographical 

 Institute of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, one — of a child — in the British 

 Museum, and the rest in Copenhagen. They are commented upon, as 

 far as their racial features are concerned, thus by Lund himself 

 (1844):" 



If we consider these remains of man from the standpoint of the ethnographic 

 traits which they present, we shall see that all the skulls bear the distinctive 



features of the American race The race which occupied this part of 



the world in remote antiquity was in its general type the same as that which 

 inhabited the country at the time of the discovery by the Europeans. 



In 1876 the skull preserved in Rio de Janeiro is described by 

 Lacerda and Peixoto. Their main conclusion is (pp. ']2-^2))^ that 

 the fossil cranium of Lagoa Santa " closely approaches in its charac- 

 teristics the crania of the Botocudos." 



In 1879, on the occasion of the Anthropological Congress in Mos- 

 cow, Quatrefages presents a communication dealing with the Lagoa 

 Santa discoveries and the Lacerda and Peixoto report on one of the 

 skulls from the cave of Sumidouro. In discussing the characteristics 

 of this skull " he calls especial attention to its height. His statements 

 in this connection could not be more explicit, yet in course of time 

 they have been so abused that they deserve to be quoted in full. They 

 are as follows : 



By the union of dolichocephaly and hypsistenocephaly the skull of Lagoa 

 Santa approaches in a very unexpected way the skulls of divers other races, 

 and particularly those of the Papuans. The two characteristics are even more 

 accentuated in it than in the average of the Melanesians so well studied by 

 M. Hamy In calling attention to these resemblances I intend in no 



^"For a detailed account of these remains see Hrdlicka (1912). 



"^In his important communication to C. C. Rafn, Secretary of the Societe 

 Royal des Antiquaires du Nord. See Lund in Literature Cited. 



" The principal measurements of the specimen, which belonged to a male of 

 about 30 years of age, are given thus: Capacity, 1388 cc ; diam. ant. -poster., 

 18.5 cm; transverse max., 12.9 cm; "vertical", 14.5 cm; C. I., 69.7. 



