NO. II MELANESIANS AND AUSTRALIANS HRDLICKA II 



Upon everyone, that the skulls from Lagoa Santa have the character of Ameri- 

 can crania, the racial features of the still-living Indians. (Pp. 198-199.) 



In 1885 a succinct report on his study of the whole collection of 

 the Lagoa Santa crania preserved at Copenhagen is published by 

 Ten Kate. After showing that these skulls are not as uniform as 

 has been represented by Kollmann, who did not study quite all the 

 specimens, the author says : 



I accept willingly the view that the skulls of Lagoa Santa ofifer close analogies 

 with other American series, notably with the Botocudos and natives of Lower 

 California. (P. 243.) 



The year 1888 sees the publication by the Lund Museum of a 

 volume of the Danish studies on the Lagoa Santa remains, and this 

 includes communications on the human bones by Liitken and Hansen. 



Liitken, in an excellent exposition of the subject, is justly skeptical 

 as to the great antiquity of the remains and avoids all speculation 

 as to their racial affinities. In the same volume, however, Hansen 

 publishes an exhaustive study of the Lagoa Santa human skeletal 

 remains that are preserved in Copenhagen, and though he has no 

 Melanesian materials for comparison, he accentuates Quatrefages' 

 suggestion as to the resemblance of the Lagoa Santa skulls and bones 

 to those of the Papuans. He says : The type of the skulls " corre- 

 sponds perfectly to the Papuan type, a fact already announced by 

 M. de Quatrefages in connection with the skull of Rio, but still more 

 pronounced when one considers the whole series " ; and, " The bones 

 of the limbs indicate a small or medium stature but robust [body], a 

 new resemblance with the Papuans." " 



Meanwhile, some especially interesting discoveries, which eventually 

 give the theory of Oceanic blacks in America a certain standing, 

 are reported from Lower California. 



THE SKELETAL REMAINS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA 



The finds in Lower California were initiated in 1883 by the visit 

 to that region of one of the foremost students of the American natives 

 of the latter part of the past century, Dr. Ten Kate. Part of the 

 results of this trip was the collection, from caves on the island of 

 Espiritu Santo and the neighboring coast, of seven skulls and a small 

 series of other parts of the skeleton. In the caves the bones lay 



*' " Ce type correspond parfaitement au type Papou, fait deja signale par 

 M. de Quatrefages pour le crane de Rio, mais encore plus prononce si Ton 



regarde toute la serie au lieu de la seule piece qu'il conniit Les os des 



membres indiquent une stature petite ou moyenne mais tres forte, ressemblance 

 nouvelle avec les Papons." (P. 36.) 



