836 



REPORT — 1886. 



other sects, not those of either of the parents. These matters were entered into in 

 some detail, together vnth a description of general habits and customs, native 

 weapons, implements, &c. The author exhibited some photographs of the native 

 men and women, and also four skulls of the KimlDerley natives, which he had 

 brought home, and which have been measured and described by Dr. Phin. S. 

 Abraham, F.E,. C.S.I. 



5. Ohservations on Four Crania, fromKimherley, West Australia (Mr. Hard- 

 man's Collection). By P. S. Abraham, M.A., M.D., B.Sc, F.RC.S.I. 



For convenience of reference, the specimens are marked A, B, C, and D. The 

 measurements have been taken in accordance with the rules laid down by Broca, 

 Flower, Topinard, and other modern anthropologists. In estimating the capaci- 

 ties, with Xo. 8 shot, I had the kind assistance of Mr. Oldfield Thomas, cf the 

 Natural History Department, British Museum. 



The skulls present many of the typical Australian characters : they are dolico- 

 cephalic and micro-cephalic, and with prominent supra-orbital ridges in the males ; 

 they are remarkable, however, in being by no means prognathous or platyrhine. 

 A and are without doubt the crania of adult males, and D is the skull of a 

 female, probably past middle life. In its slight development of supra-orbital and 

 muscular ridges, B has a strong resemblance to a female skull ; but from the fact 

 that its last molars have not yet appeared, and that the cranial sutures (except the 

 basilar) are not united, it may possibly have belonged to a young male. This is 

 the more likely, for, as in the case of the undoubtedly male skulls A and 0, one or 

 more of the incisor teeth have been removed. A and B have thus had the two inner 

 incisors, and C only the right inner incisor, extracted in early youth. The corre- 

 sponding alveoli have, in consequence, so closed up that the basi-alveolar length in 

 A and B could not be taken with accuracy. It is clear, however, that C is, for an 

 Australian, remarkably orthognathous, while D is mesognathous. 



As in the skulls of other low races, the cranial sutures are in all the specimens 

 comparatively simple. Wormian bones are present in A and C, and an epipteric 

 in A. In B, on the right side, the frontal and squamosal bones nearly meet at the 

 pterion. The nasal indices are all mesorhine, while the orbital index is mesoseme- 

 in A, B, and D, and microseme in C. 



The forehead in A, B, and C is low and very receding, and the brain-case is- 

 arched and very narrow above, so as to be actually scapho-cephalic. In D, on the 

 other hand, the forehead and the vault of the cranium are of a much higher type. 

 In the smallness and flatness of its nasal bones, however, and in some other facial 

 points, D exhibits lower characters than the others. An imperfect lower jaw 

 belongs to D — of a very low type, its most striking feature being the little de- 

 velopment of a mental prominence. 



Measurements. 



' In consequence of the early extraction of the middle incisors these numbers areT 

 only approximate. 



