BLAKE — ON THE ORANTA OF ANCIENT RACES. 
215 
JBed of JBlacJcwater JRiver, Armagh (Ireland). — In this skull, 
which has been kindly lent to me by Prof. Huxley, the alisphenoid 
and the parietal join on the right side ; the apex, however, of the 
parietal impinges on the alisphenoid on the left : the supraorbitals 
are scarcely, if at all, prominent ; the retrocedent frontal, and the 
calvarium sloping gently upwards to the centre of the parietal bone, 
repeat here the characters of the Borris skull and the skull from the 
Valley of the Trent. In the cast, the paroccipital tubercle is slightly 
prominent on the right side. 
Valley of the Trent. — This skull repeats many of the characters 
of the Borris and Blackwater skulls, from which, however, it is 
markedly distinct. The alisphenoid and the parietal join on both 
sides. On the right side the jugular eminence is pronouncedly 
distinct, and indicates a well-defined paroccipital tubercle. The left 
jugular eminence is, however, broken away. The digastric fossa is 
deep ; the inion is protuberant. Over each orbit is a ridge, discon- 
tinuous over the nasal suture, and which projects forwards. This 
contains, on each side, large, distinct, and well-defined supraorbital 
foramina. Along the sagittal suture is a slight elevation, or crest, 
analogous to that often observed in the Australian races. The low 
frontal bone reminds the observer forcibly of the Andaman skull,* 
which it does not exceed in regard to its frontal development. 
One of the most important diflferences which the cranium of the 
Troglodytes Gorilla presents to the human skull has been defined by 
Prof. Owen (Osteological Catalogue of the College of Surgeons) 
to be the more backward position of the foramen magnum, and 
its more oblique plane in relation to the base of the skull in the 
Grorilla, than in man. The almost horizontal direction of the 
foramen magnum in the human species, co-related with the character 
{situs erectus) applied by the Linniean definition to man, is modified 
in the Valley of the Trent skull, and such modification is in the direc- 
tion of the inferior type. The angle made by a line drawn from the 
anterior to the posterior margins of the foramen magnum, with 
the plane of the basioccipital, is more oblique than I have observed 
in any human skull, and markedly more so than in the so-called 
"lowest" races of mankind, as e.g. the Australians and Andaman 
Islanders. This character, coupled with the powerful occipital spine, 
the ridged and crested surface of the lower half of the super- 
occipital, indicative of the action of powerful nuchal ligaments 
to keep the head from falling forwards, the presence of a " par- 
occipital" process for the firmer attachment of the rectus capitis 
lateralis, and the slightly more backward position of the occipital 
condyles, seem to indicate that an entirely erect position was 
not the normal attitude of the pre-historical contemporary of Bos 
primigenius in the Valley of the Trent. 
The skull from the Valley of the Trent exhibits, on the right side 
of the upper half of the superoccipital bone, a partial retention of the 
suture dividing the squama occipitalis from the lower half of the 
* Owen, Trans. Ethn. Soc. 1862. 
