CRANIOLOGY OF THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 393 



environment, to account for the origin of physical differences, which have conferred on 

 these people such marked racial distinctions as we recognise to exist between them. 



If we now proceed to the comparison of the aboriginal Tasmanian with the New 

 Caledonian, interesting points are to be noted. They agreed generally as to stature and 

 the colour of the skin, but in the Tasmanian the hair was short and woolly, not long and 

 mop-like. The Tasmanian skull was not strongly dolichocephalic, for though the majority 

 had the cephalic index either below 75 or in the lower term of the mesaticephali, in about 

 one-sixth the index was in the higher mesaticephalic group, and the mean index in sixty- 

 nine skulls was 74"7, the greater relative breadth in the Tasmanian being due to the promi- 

 nent parietal eminences. The Tasmanian skulls did not show the almost uniform excess 

 of height over breadth which was seen in the New Caledonians, and which gave to the 

 latter a high rank in the hypsistenocephalic Melanesians. On the contrary, in the 

 Tasmanian s the height was usually less than the breadth, and the skulls generally were 

 broad, low skulls, platychamaecephalic. The cranial vault was roof-shaped in both, but 

 the New Caledonian did not show the fronto-parietal longitudinal depression so frequently, 

 or to such a degree, as the Tasmanian, neither was the depression of the sagittal suture in 

 the post-parietal region so often seen. The nose was shorter and with broader nostrils, 

 the orbits were lower, the upper orbital region was more massive, the upper jaw was 

 scarcely so prognathous and the lower jaw was not so strong in the Tasmanian as in 

 the New Caledonian. The forehead, glabella, and supraciliary ridges were not unlike 

 in both series. The skulls of the New Caledonians approximated more in their characters 

 to the Australians than to the Tasmanians, though distinguishable from both. 



These differences lead one to think that the Tasmanian was not in direct descent from 

 the Melanesians as we know them at the present day. In important respects his physical 

 characters were more nearly allied to the Asiatic Negritos. Though the Tasmanian skull 

 as a rule has a dolichocephalic length-breadth index, yet in the mean 74*7 it approaches 

 the mesaticephalic group. In both the parietal eminences are prominent, the basi- 

 bregmatic height is less than the greatest breadth, the sagittal suture is often 

 depressed below the general plane of the vault of the cranium, and in these respects the 

 skulls approximate to the platychamaecephalic cranial type of the Negrito, and the 

 woolly hair of the one is comparable with that of the other. In stature, however, 

 the Tasmanian was not a dwarf. 



The whole question of the descent of the Tasmanians is one of great complexity and 

 difficulty, which has been much discussed by ethnologists. Huxley considered them 

 to be the Negrito modification of the great Negroid type or division of mankind, which 

 had migrated eastwards to New Caledonia and subsequently southwards to Tasmania. 

 Topinard, whilst of opinion that they were the remains of an autochthonous race, 

 recognised that they might be a cross between it and an invading member of the 

 Polynesian family. Barnard Davis regarded them as a peculiar and distinct race, 

 dwelling in their own island. De Quatrefages and Hamy said that, owing to their 

 special characters, they had no affinities with any other race, and that they formed a 



