THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 443 



races. Owing to the imperfect facial skeleton in the remains of palaeolithic man, the 

 form and proportions of their nasal region are not definitely known. 



Klaatsch also attached great importance to the boundaries of the anterior nares, 

 and he gave an interpretation of the appearance presented by that region in the 

 anthropoid apes when compared with the Australians. In the apes each lateral 

 boundary was formed by a sharp ridge which ended below on the incisor surface 

 of the prsemaxillse in a small prominence ; Klaatsch named the ridge the crista 

 prsenasalis. Immediately posterior to it was a depression, the fossa prsenasalis, 

 bounded behind by a low ridge on the lateral wall of the inferior meatus, the margo 

 infranasalis, which passed inwards across the nasal floor and joined the root of the 

 rudimentary anterior (maxillo-) nasal spine, which was recessed into the floor of the 

 nasal chamber (PI. II. fig. 7). Klaatsch considered that all these elements could be 

 recognised at the nares of aboriginal Australians, and illustrated the transformation of 

 the nasal cavity of the anthropoid apes into that of the higher races of men. The 

 variations, he said, could be traced from a sharply defined crista prsenasalis to 

 skulls in which it and the fossa prsenasalis had almost disappeared, the margo 

 infranasalis had approached the opening of the nose, and had assumed the character 

 found in Europeans, in which the opening was bounded laterally and below by the 

 well-defined margo infranasalis and not by the crista. Klaatsch stated that though the 

 Sydney Tasmanian at the first glance seemed to agree with the European, it really 

 corresponded with the Australians, and the opening was bounded by the crista 

 prsenasalis and not by the margo prsenasalis. In a careful comparison of this region 

 in the Australians and in my series of Tasmanians, I found that behind the lateral 

 boundary of the nasal opening a fossa prsenasalis and a margo infranasalis were present 

 in each Tasmanian, though better marked in some (PI. II. fig. 6) than in others. 

 The anterior nares therefore had on each side, in addition to the external boundary, 

 a descending ridge lying within the cavity and separated from the external boundary 

 by a prsenasal fossa. I also examined a number of skulls in the University Museum 

 of Papuans, Melanesians, Polynesians, South and West African Blacks, Andaman 

 Islanders, etc., which, whilst generally exhibiting similar characters, differed from each 

 other in points of detail.* Usually, though not invariably, this form of anterior nares 

 was associated with a prognathic upper jaw and with a rudimentary and recessed 

 maxillo-nasal spine ; also, as I described many years ago t in Australian skulls, the 

 boundaries of the anterior nares, instead of being almost perpendicular, and with a 

 sharp edge, were smooth and rounded off where they became continuous with the nasal 

 floor, and approximated in appearance to the nares of anthropoid apes. 



The prognathic character of the upper jaw was usually a strong feature in the 

 Australians, Tasmanians and black races generally. The incisive region projected 

 distinctly in front of the anterior nares, and was continuous with the floor of the nose, 



* I must leave for a future occasion an account of the more striking variations which I have seen in different races, 

 t Challenger Reports, 1884, p. 32, PI. II. fig. 3. 

 TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. XLVII. PART. III. (NO. 16). 66 



