REPORT ON THE HUMAN CRANIA. 
29 
pupils, of whom, from the number of specimens given to me, I may especially name Dr. 
Frederick Page, and Dr. G. More Reid. 
The entire series consisted therefore of thirty-five crania, almost all of which were 
entire, and a large number possessed the lower jaw. They were from Queensland, 
New South W ales, Gipps Land, Victoria, South Australia, Lake Alexandrina, Alexandra 
Land, West Australia, North-West Australia, as far as the de Grey River, and Roebuck 
Bay. 1 They embrace specimens both of the coast tribes and of tribes much more 
inland. 
With four exceptions they had all reached adult life, whilst some were more advanced 
in years ; the four younger skulls ranged apparently from 1 6 to 18 years. Of the thirty-one 
adults twenty were apparently males and eleven females, whilst two of the four youths 
were males, the others probably females. In the male youths the basi-cranial synchon- 
drosis was unossified. The 1st and 2nd permanent molars were erupted, but the wisdom 
teeth were still enclosed in their bony alveoli. It is remarkable that in one skull the 
upper lateral incisors were absent, apparently indeed never developed, and the canine 
sockets were in close proximity to the sockets for the central incisors. In the young 
1 The skull from Perth, West Australia, was dug up by John Thomson, Esq., Surgeon, along with the bones of the 
skeleton. The body was buried in the sitting posture, and the knees were the parts first exposed. The skull from the 
Macquarrie River district was found by Mr. D. Houison, 6 feet below the surface of a large mound of earth. The 
body, probably that of a chief, had been encased in Eucalyptus leaves 3 or 4 inches thick, and a layer of timber 
and bark was above the leaves. The trees facing the mound were marked and carved. The skull from Lake 
Alexandrina was got by Mr. Walter Dickson at the foot of a shea-oak tree, about 80 miles south of Adelaide and about 
20 miles from the sea coast. In this district the natives smoke the bodies of their dead ; they then swathe them 
in mats, bending the legs under the body, after which they place them in the forks of the shea-oak trees ; as decomposi- 
tion advances the bones fall to the ground. The Roebuck Bay skull, lat. 18°, was presented to me by Dr. F. Page, 
who states that the dead are left uncared for on the ground, but that the natives are more intelligent than those of the 
south-west coast ; they make fishing lines and baskets, have heavy clubs and spears, which they do not throw, and 
have canoes in common use. They wear no clothing, are decidedly black, and are fine well-nourished men averaging 
6 feet in height. Fish is their chief food. The Malays occasionally visit them. The Riverina skull, presented along 
with the skeleton by Dr. G. More Reid, was that of the chief of his tribe : he was said to be about 5 feet 10 inches high. 
The Coorong skull was obtained by Mr. Clement L. Wragge from a platform or funeral pile in thick tea-tree scrub 
adjoining the Coorong and mouth of the Murray ; the body was rolled in coarse sacks. The Mudgee skull was dug up 
by Mr. R. Vandeleur Kelly near the banks of the Cudgegong River, New South Wales. The Mudgee tribe bury their 
dead in a large grave 3 or 4 feet deep, and make a circular mound over the grave, sometimes 10 feet in diameter ; the 
corpse is placed in a sitting posture, with spears, boomerangs, &c., beside it. It is a custom of this tribe to knock 
out a front tooth, when a boy arrives at puberty. The skull from Eucla was that of a man said to be from 55 to 60, 
presented by Wm. Williams, Esq. (who also gave the male skull from Fowler’s Bay, said to be a man of 40). The skull 
from the Wannon River was obtained by Mr. Pillean about 10 miles from Portland Bay and about 200 miles west of 
Melbourne. The Portland Bay skulls were dug up at the Hummocks, near Belfast and Warnamboot. The skull from 
the Margaret River, near Cape Leeuwin, says Dr. F. Page, was that of a man who had been a herdsman, and who stood 
6 feet high, considerably above the average height of the men of his tribe, who are small, badly fed savages, dressed in 
skins and leading nomadic lives. Food is scarce with them. They live upon roots, with an occasional gorge of 
Kangaroo. Although close to the sea they do not fish with a net or line, nor do they make or use canoes. The natives 
of this district are of a mahogany colour, with long black hair and dark brown eyes. They bury the dead in the 
sitting posture and raise a tumulus over the grave. The Benalla skulls are from a place between the Goulburn and 
Murray Rivers, about 150 miles north of Melbourne ; the male is said by Mr. James Grice, who dug them up, to be 
about 60, the female about 24. The specimen from the de Grey River was in the collection of the late Dr. Handyside, 
but has now been acquired for the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh. 
