214 . PRINCIPAL SIR WILLIAM TURNER ON 



four axis cervical vertebrae, so that at least four persons had been entombed in the 

 cave. One skull, A, was found on the surface of the black earth towards the back 

 of the cave ; another, B, was embedded in the shell-bed immediately subjacent to 

 the black earth. 



The skulls from the MacArthur cave were adults. B was a powerful male, A 

 possibly also a male, C possibly a female. In B the general form of the cranium was 

 elongated ovoid, pentagonal in both norma verticalis and occipitalis, broadest at the 

 parietal eminences, the parieto-squamous region vertical, the parieto-occipital slope 

 moderate, cranial sutures in course of closure, cephalic index 70 -2, dolichocephalic; 

 forehead somewhat retreating ; glabella and supraciliaries strong ; nasion depressed ; 

 nasal bones short, moderately projecting; facial bones injured, vertical diameter of 

 orbit low, index microseme, lower jaw massive, angle marked, chin strong. In length, 

 breadth and horizontal circumference the dimensions were large, and in the cubic 

 capacity, although the basi-occipital was broken, the cranial cavity could contain 

 1715 c.c. of water (fig. 29, A and B) (Table VI). 



In A the cranial sutures were unossified and the dimensions were smaller than 

 in B. The teeth were erupted and not decayed. The general form of the cranium 

 approximated to B, but the slope of the vault from the sagittal line to the parietal 

 eminences was not so steep. The right parieto-squamous region was imperfect, and 

 the greatest breadth, 138 mm., could only be given approximately, which, with the 

 glabello-occipital length, 183 mm., gave a cephalic index 75*4, in form essentially 

 dolichocephalic ; the vertical index was 76. The forehead was not so retreating 

 as in B and the glabella and supraciliaries were not so strong ; the nasion was not 

 so depressed and the nasals not so projecting; the nasal index 47 '9 was narrow 

 leptorhine ; the gnathic index 94'2 was orthognathous ; the orbital index 82*5 was 

 low, microseme; the palato-maxillary index 113-2 was mesuranic, and the palate 

 was symmetrical. The lower jaw had a forward projecting chin, and a distinct 

 angle. The lower jaw was the only bone of C to be identified ; it was well formed 

 and with a definite chin. 



The skulls from the Mackay cave were those of a man and a child. That of the 

 adult was much injured ; evidently the man had been in the prime of life for the 

 crowns of the teeth were not much worn ; the lower jaw was well formed, the supra- 

 ciliaries, the inion and the curved lines were prominent, the palate was highly arched. * 

 The child was probably eight; the face was broken away, the cranium was 171 mm. 

 long, 133 mm. broad, the cephalic index was 77*8. The cranium was metopic, small 

 Wormians were in the lambdoid and each pterion had an epipteric. 



The bones of the shafts of the lower limb showed interesting characters. In the 

 Mackay skeleton the tibiae were platyknemic and an articular surface for the astragalus 

 was prolonged in front of the lower end of the tibia. In 1886 I pointed out* that 

 the upper third of the anterior surface of the shaft of the femur was transversely 



* " Challenger Reports," Zoology, part xlvii, p. 97, 1886. 



