BRISTOL NATURALISTS SOCIETY. 
From ihe Bristol Daily Post of December 7. 
The third monthly meeting for this session was held at 
the Philosophical Institution on Thursday evening last, 
Mr. W. Sander^, the president, occupying the chair. The 
attendance was larger than we remember to have noticed on 
any former occasion, upwards of seventy, several of whom 
were ladies, thus evincing their interest in the proceedings 
of the society. It is greatly to be hoped that the future 
meetings will be still more largely attended. 
The business of the evening consisted in the reading of, 
and discussion upon, three papers ; two of which had espe- 
cial reference to the New Zealand Chiefs who recently 
visited Bristol. 
The first was a verbal commtyiication from Dr. Beddoe, 
on the Maori race. This word meant " strangers"— as the 
present inhabitants were not aborigines, very distinct tradi- 
tions existing of their ancestors having come in canoes from 
some one or more of the Polynesian islands more than 600 
years ago. The present inhabitants of the numerous islands 
known as Polynesia, might be divided into two great races, 
the superior of which was derived from the Malay, and inha- 
bited the numerous small islands— and it was from this race 
that the Maories chiefly sprang. The larger islands, which 
lay between the Malay peninsula and Polynesia proper, 
were peopled by a black race, inferior to the other in 
civilization, &c., with dark frizzly hair,^ to which they 
paid great attention, using a neck-pillow to support it. 
The Feejee islanders were an example of this race. Some 
proportion of their blood also existed in the Maori race — 
hence it would appear (though tradition does not bear it out) 
as though the aborigines of New Zealand belonged to the 
inferior race, and were subjugated by the other ; in fact, the 
Maories differed more from the Malay race than the true 
Polynesians did. With respect to the present Maories, the 
author considered them as a fine race, though the seven 
chiefs who lately visited Bristol were certainly picked 
specimens. The average height was 5 ft, 6^ in., and Dr. 
Thompson stated them to have longer bodies and arms, but 
shorter legs, than Europeans. The form and capacity of the 
head did not differ widely from the European — especially the 
Celtic — while the features resembled those of American 
Indians. In those individuals who possessed more of the 
blood of the lower race, the cheek-bones were very wide. 
The speaker then described the painful process of tattooing. 
The holes in the skin were made with a kind of lancet, 
and various sorts of charcoal constituted the colour- 
ing matter ; the leading artistic idea appeared to be 
the imitation of the scales of certain fishes. Dr. Beddoe 
concluded by offering a few remarks on the decline of 
the race during the last forty years. Among other 
causes he noticed the desolating wars among themselves; 
certain obvious f aults in their mode of life, as close sleeping 
and the excessive use ©f tobacco ; and a variety of diseases 
introduced by the English settlers. In conclusion, he said 
he did not see how we could help being drawn into the last 
stage of the war, but urged that our previous relations with 
them, the high qualities they had shown, and lastly, our 
common Christianity, should make us wish to treat them as 
mildly as possible. 
Mr. Charles Ottley Groome then read a long paper, 
entitled, "On certain characteristics of the cranium of the 
New Zealanders." He described, in a very amusing manner, 
the various classes into which heads might be divided, 
according to their shape — as round, wedge-shaped, conical, 
oval, &c. — giving the general mental characteristics usually 
found to accompany these, and then gave a detailed account; 
of the results of bis examination of the heads of the seven 
chiefs and two women who were at present inEngland,with his 
conjectures of their characters, insisting strongly on the fact 
