REPORT ON THE HUMAN CRANIA. 
25 
that of the females 80"2. Virchow from his measurements places the cephalic index 
in the men at 79, whilst that of the two women whom he examined is in the one 
case 79"6, in the other 80"6, with a mean of 80"1 ; the mean of the series of six 
- heads was 79*4. Both these observers therefore agree in placing the mean cephalic index 
of these Fuegian heads in the highest term of mesaticephalism, or the lowest of bracby- 
cephalism, which is somewhat higher than the mean of 76 '5 deduced from the eleven 
crania which have up to this time been examined. One can no longer therefore say that 
the Fuegians are as a whole a dolichocephalic race. The mean stature of the four men is 
stated by M. Manouvrier to be l m, 612, i.e., 5 feet 3-|- inches, whilst Virchow gives 
1645 mm., i.e., 5 feet 4| inches as the height of Hendrich the tallest of the men. 
The question however arises, may there not be more than one race of people dwelling 
in the islands of the Fuegian archipelago ? Herr von Bohr, who sailed in Magellans 
Strait in 1879/ examined the heads of some men who visited his ship in their canoe 
about 20 nautical miles west of Cape Fro ward. He states that the skull was 
elongated, conspicuously high, and tapering off from the sides towards the vertex in a 
ridge. He took the greatest breadth and length, " mit einem etwas groben Tasterzirkel," 
and gives the cephalic index of three men as respectively 70, 73, and 77, or a mean of 
73*3. Although he admits that his callipers were somewhat coarse, yet his eye had 
recognised the longiih or oblong form of the head in these persons, so that although his 
measurements may not have been absolutely correct, yet they are probably approximately 
so. These observations, together with the measurements of certain of the skulls referred 
to on p. 22, point to the presence of people with dolichocephalic heads amongst the 
Fuegians. The tallest of the men was 5 ft. 1 in., the shortest 4 ft. 10 in. The 
proximity of the archipelago to the part of the continent occupied by the brachy- 
cephalic Patagonians may perhaps have led to an intermixture of races, so that 
if, as is not impossible, the original stock of these islands was dolichocephalic, a 
measure of fusion of the two races may have led to the origin of a people whose heads 
have mesaticephalic proportions, more or less strongly pronounced according to the pro- 
portion in which one or other of the two original races preponderated. 
That the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego are not a homogeneous people has indeed 
been recognised by more than one traveller. Captain Fitzroy states 2 that the Yacana- 
kunny in the north-east of the large island resemble the Patagonians in colour, stature, 
and clothing, whilst the Tekeenica, who live in the south-east, are low in stature, ill- 
looking, and badly proportioned. The Alikhoolip tribe are not unlike, though superior to, 
the Tekeenica, whilst the Yacanas partake of the peculiarities of both the Patagonians 
and Fuegians. Captain King also describes the wife of a Fuegian as from her size not 
1 Communication made to the Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologic, Jan. 15, 1881 (Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, 
Bd. xiii. p. 30, 1881). Dr. Essendorfer had also, on 30th March 1880, given {Zeitschrift, Bd. xii. p. 57) some information 
about the aspect of the Fuegians, but without any measurements. 
2 Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. ii. p. 137, 1839. Captain King's description is in vol. i. p. 55. 
(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. — PART XXIX. 1884.) Ff 4 
