CRANIOLOGY OF THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 



369 



skulls, which, together with the shallow antero-posterior depressions in the fron to- parietal 

 regions and the prominent parietal eminences, formed some of the distinctive features 

 in the Tasmanian crania. 



In order to give a pictorial illustration of these characters, I placed three of the 

 skulls so as to obtain photographs of the frontal and the anterior part of the parietal 

 regions as seen from above, and I have had "process" reproductions prepared. 

 (Plate L, figs. 2-4.)* 



The median frontal convexity, the shallow depression which bounded it on each side, 

 extending backwards into the parietal region, the projecting parietal eminences, the 

 relative narrowness of the frontal region with the phsenozygous condition of the zygomata, 

 are reproduced in the plate. I have also obtained tracings with Lissauer's apparatus 

 of the vertical transverse arc of the cranial vault, to show the undulating outline in the 



Fig. 1. 



frontal region, in the antero-parietal region, and in the plane of the two parietal 

 eminences.! (Fig 1, text.) 



Below the parietal eminences the side walls of the cranium were only slightly 

 bulging, though, as a rule, the greatest breadth was at or near the squamous suture. The 

 parietal foramina were usually obliterated, and when present were very small. Between 

 the obelion and the lambdoid suture the vault sloped gently downwards and backwards, 

 and this part of the post-parietal region had a surface obliquely flattened from side to 

 side, in no way to be mistaken for the vertical parieto-occipital flattening produced by 

 pressure applied artificially during infancy. The general form of the skull corresponded 

 with the pentagonoides planum of Sergi. 



* These skulls are lettered in Table I., xxx., Nos. 2, 5, and 10. 



t The frontal transverse arc/ was taken 35 mm. in front of the bregma, the antero-parietal arc (op.) was one cm. 

 behind the bregma, whilst the mid-parietal arc (m.p.) was about the middle of the eminences. The tracings were of 

 the skull from the collection of the late Professor Eobert Jameson (Table I. No. 10). Professor Cunningham 

 kindly traced them of the size of Nature with a Lissauer's apparatus in his possession. The short vertical lines on the 

 vertex are in the position of the sagittal suture ; those at the sides mark the temporal curved lines. 



