THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 343 



direct descent from the Melanesians as we know them at the present day, though in 

 the structure of the hair, as now described, they have some characters in common. 



11. From the comparison with the Negritos of the Andaman Islands I stated that, in 

 physical characters, the Tasmanians were more closely allied to the Negritos than to the 

 Melanesians. To these I can now add the form and structure of the hair, which, when 

 permitted to grow, had in both races a definite arrangement in spirally curled locks 

 of moderate length, which might assume the appearance of slender cords or ringlets. 



12. The contrast between the Andaman Islander and the Papuan or Melanesian 

 is very marked. In the former the skull was small, rounded, brachycephalic ; parietal 

 eminences prominent ; vault flattened ; cranial height less than breadth ; forehead 

 smooth, not retreating ; glabella and superciliary ridges feeble : nasion shallow ; 

 nasal index platyrhine ; facial profile relatively vertical ; stature dwarf-like ; skin 

 dark, approaching black ; hair in short, woolly, slender cord-like ringlets. On the 

 other hand, in the Papuan and Melanesian, the skull was long, relatively narrow, 

 markedly dolichocephalic ; vault roof-shaped ; cranial height more than the breadth ; 

 forehead retreating ; glabella and superciliary ridges strong ; nasion deep ; nose 

 platyrhine ; facial profile prognathic ; stature moderate ; skin blackish, or dark 

 brown ; hair, when allowed to grow, mop-like and frizzly. 



13. The Tasmanian in his physical characters seemed to occupy a place intermediate 

 to the Negrito and the Papuo-Melanesian, though more closely associated with the 

 former. The mean cephalic index was sub-dolichocephalic, on the confines of the 

 dolicho- and mesaticephalic groups ; the parietal eminences were prominent ; the vault 

 had special characters of its own,* though flattened as in the platychamsecephalic 

 Negrito ; the hair also closely corresponded to the Negrito. On the other hand, the 

 forehead, glabella, superciliary ridges were more in accordance with the Melanesian, 

 and the Tasmanian was not a pygmy, but was moderate in stature. 



14. In discussing the question of the origin and descent of the Tasmanians, it 

 would be wrong to regard them as a race which had no affinities with any other race. 

 From the fact that Tasmania had originally been continuous with Australia, its 

 population had undoubtedly been derived from a race coming from the north, 

 east, or west and not from the south. Flower regarded the Tasmanians known 

 to us, as aberrant members of the Melanesian group showing variations in their 

 physical characters, which might have arisen and become intensified and perpetuated 

 from their geographical position and insulation. Huxley considered them to be 

 a Negrito modification of the Negroid division of mankind, which had migrated from 

 Asia eastwards as far as New Caledonia and subsequently southwards to Tasmania. 

 Ling Roth spoke of them as aborigines of Australia who had in course of time been 

 displaced by the existing straight-haired Australian natives. 



15. I stated in Part I. that the evidence favoured their descent from a primitive 

 Negrito stock, which had migrated across Australia, rather than by the route of the 



* Described in detail in Parts I. and II, 



