THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 435 



posterior diameter, large and prominent. The cuboid had a slight articulation with 

 the scaphoid, but it did not touch the astragalus, as Klaatsch has stated to be the 

 case in the Tasmanian skeletons in the Hunterian collection. 



The tarso-metatarsal articular surfaces of the hallux and ento-cuneiform were each 

 partially divided into two facets by marginal notches ; they were concavo-convex in 

 form, and permitted a greater range of active movement to the great toe than if the 

 articulation had been plane surfaced. 



It is interesting to note that the early navigators observed that the natives apparently 

 unarmed, and with no weapons in their hands, trailed their spears after them on the 

 ground as they walked, "the point being held between the great and second toes."* 

 By a sudden rapid motion of the foot the spear could be transferred to the hand and 

 effectively used as a weapon of attack. 



The metatarsals and phalanges of the toes were relatively slender. 



From the characters of the skeleton generally, without taking into consideration 

 the special features of the skull, one would have no difficulty in pronouncing that it 

 belonged to an aboriginal, black-skinned race, relatively small in stature. Thus the 

 collective vertical diameter of the bodies of the lumbar vertebrae behind was longer 

 than in front ; the general lumbar index, as well as the special lumbar index of the 

 upper four vertebrae, was more than 100. The vertebral bodies, from the 1st to the 

 4th inclusive, when directly articulated with each other, produced a curve concave and 

 not convex forwards ; in other words, a koilorachic spine. In the 5th lumbar, 

 however, the body had a longer diameter in front than behind. In the black as in 

 other races the intervertebral discs are important factors in producing the anterior 

 lumbar convexity of the human spine. 



In several of the black races the conjugate and transverse diameters of the 

 pelvic inlet in males produced a brim index above 95, i.e. dolichopellic ; f in two 

 of the male Tasmanian pelves measured by Garson the brim index was 99 and 98 "2 

 respectively, therefore dolichopellic; but in the other two 88'6 and 88 respectively, 

 therefore platypellic ; whilst the mean index of the four pelves was 93*4, mesatipellic. 

 The Brussels skeleton with its brim index 77 '1 was therefore considerably below 

 not only the mean index, but the lowest of the specimens previously measured, 

 and in this respect was exceptional. In the relative length and breadth of the sacrum 

 it also differed from the black races generally, in which the length exceeded the 

 breadth and the sacral index was below 100, i.e. dolichohieric ; for in this pelvis the 

 breadth was greater than the length and the index was above 100, a proportion in 

 which the sacral index corresponded with the mean 101 "5 of three Tasmanian sacra 

 measured by Garson, 101 5, i.e. platyhieric. 



In the Brussels skeleton, as in other black races, the forearm was proportionally 

 longer than the upper arm as compared with Europeans ; the limb was therefore 



* Ling Roth, op. cit., p. 14. 



t See section on the pelvis in my Challenger Beport, 188G. 

 TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. XLVII. PART III. (NO. 16). 65 



