30 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
females the basi-cranial synchondrosis was also unossified, the 1st and 2nd permanent 
molars were erupted, but the wisdom teeth had not come to the surface. In one 
of these a unicuspidate tooth occupied a cavity in the palatal plate of the left superior 
maxilla, behind the incisive canal and parallel and close to the intermaxillary 
suture. It lay horizontally, parallel to that suture, and with what seemed to be 
its crown directed backwards. The incisors, canines, bicuspids, and 1st and 2nd 
molars had all erupted in their proper order, so that this palatal tooth was a super- 
numerary dens. 
It might seem scarcely necessary that I should enter into a minute description of 
the characters of the crania of the aboriginal Australians, as so much has been written 
on that subject by preceding craniologists ; but as these skulls have been collected from 
so wide an area, and as the precise locality of collection has in most cases been noted, 
an examination and comparison of their most important features may not be considered 
to be out of place in this Report. 
Norma verticalis . — In most of the skulls, especially the males, the ridge-like elevation 
in the sagittal region and the slope on each side outwards and downwards to the parietal 
eminence gave to the cranial vault a characteristic roof-like or ill-filled appearance ; 
which was heightened by the ridge being not unfrequently prolonged forwards in the 
mid-frontal region. The greatest transverse diameter of the cranial box, both in the 
males and females, was in the great majority in the region of the squamous suture, and 
not near the parietal eminences. All the male crania were phsenozygous, some slightly 
so, but others with widely arching zygomata. The females, with two exceptions, were 
phsenozygous. In the youth’s crania the zygomata were either invisible or barely visible 
in the norma verticalis. In the males the Stephanie and asterionic diameters were equal 
or almost equal (within 2 mm.) in eight specimens. The Stephanie exceeded the 
asterionic by more than 2 mm. in six, but was less than the asterionic in the remaining 
six. In the females the Stephanie and asterionic diameters were equal or almost equal 
(within 2 mm.) in five specimens ; the Stephanie exceeded the asterionic in three, but 
was less than the asterionic in the remaining three. In the youth’s crania the Stephanie 
exceeded the asterionic by from 1 to 12 mm. 
Norma lateralis . — Three of the males rested behind on the tips of the mastoids, one 
on the occipital condyles, the rest on the conceptacula cerebelli. The females all rested 
on the conceptacula, and one also on the condyles. The youths’ all rested on the concep- 
tacula. In the greater number of this series of skulls, therefore, the cerebellar region of 
the occipital bone bulged downwards. In the Portland Bay specimens it was almost 
horizontal, and the inion was brought low down in the occiput. The crania were all 
elongated. In all the male skulls, with one exception, both the frontal and parietal 
longitudinal arcs were considerably greater than the occipital ; in the exceptional cranium, 
from Swan Hill, whilst the frontal arc was longer, the parietal was less than the occipital. 
