384 PRINCIPAL SIR W. TURNER ON 



from Dumoutier. In the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland is the 

 head of an aboriginal which has been figured by Ling Roth in his comprehensive work. 



The data furnished by so many excellent observers, and extending at intervals over 

 about a century of time, enable us to realise the external physical characters of the 

 aborigines of Tasmania. Though differing in minor details, the descriptions correspond 

 in their main features, which may be summarised as follows : — Skin black or very dark 

 brown, often marked with cicatrices ; hair black, frizzled, woolly, usually in short locks, 

 though sometimes forming separate small ringlets, with abundant beard and whiskers ; 

 face short in relation to breadth, nose short, sunk at the root, not flattened, nostrils 

 broad and full (Plate I. fig. 1); mouth large, lips moderately thick; eyes small and 

 sunken ; eyebrows overhanging ; forehead narrow, in the men somewhat retreating ; 

 upper jaw somewhat projecting ; stature moderate — one man measured 5 ft. 3 in. (Crozet), 

 others seen by Peron were 5 ft. 2, 4 or 6 in., and one was said to be 5 ft. 10 in. (1 m. 

 786 mm.), but he was doubtless exceptional ; whilst G. A. Robinson gave the measure- 

 ments of twenty-three men as ranging from 5 ft. 1 in. to 5 ft. 1\ in., and of twenty-nine 

 women from 4 ft 3 in. to 5 ft. 4|- in. Flower stated that the average height of three 

 male skeletons was 5 ft. 2>\ in., and that of a female 4 ft. 7|- in. The body was well 

 develojDed and muscular, especially the buttocks ; the limbs were slender, and the belly 

 was proportionally large. 



Those who had the opportunity of observing the living natives of Tasmania, natur- 

 ally compared their appearance with that of other races of aborigines. Crozet considered 

 the hair to be like that of the wool of Kaffirs. Cook stated that it was as woolly as 

 that of any native of Guinea, and Surgeon Anderson, who accompanied him, thought 

 that the Tasmanians resembled the natives of Tanna and Mallicollo. Peron was 

 of opinion that the Tasmanians were altogether different from the Australians in 

 physical characters. The short, woolly, frizzly hair contrasted with the long, straight 

 hair of the Australians, and the colour of the skin was browner than in the latter. 

 Owing undoubtedly to the skin being smeared with grease and charcoal, its precise 

 natural colour was somewhat difficult to determine. Crozet stated that when washed 

 it was reddish brown ; Peron, as above stated, regarded it as inclining to brown ; whilst 

 such expressions as dull black, bluish black, perfectly black, sooty black, very dark 

 almost black, not a very deep black, occur in the descriptions of other observers. 

 Quoy and Gaimard considered the Tasmanians as approaching the African negro, 

 though the nose was not so flattened nor the lips so thick and protuberant ; they were 

 definitely different, they said, from the natives of South Australia, and still more from 

 the Papuans, with whom they had no relations further than that of colour : they 

 regarded them as a distinct race — an opinion concurred in by MM. Hombron and 

 Jacquinot, who, seeing that they believed in the special origin of the race, did not con- 

 sider it necessary to inquire into their descent. Dumoutier stated that they bore the type 

 of other Melanesians like the Fijians and the natives of New Guinea, but with certain 

 differences ; he considered that they should be referred to a negro race : the length of 



