62 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
hine and mesorhine as regards the nasal index ; mesoseme as regards the orbital index, 
mesuranic as to the length and breadth of the palato-maxillary arch ; microcephalic for 
the females, but mesocephalic for the males. 
SANDWICH ISLANDERS. 
Plates V., VI. Tables IX., X., XI., XII., XVIII., XIX. 
These crania were from two different islands in the group, viz., Hawaii and Oahu. 
Four skulls were presented by W. L. Green, Esq., the foreign minister to the King of the 
Sandwich Islands, who took them from a cave on Waimea Plains, Hawaii, near the Hill 
of Holohaloku. Mr. Green, in a letter to Sir Wyville Thomson, states that “this cave is 
an ancient burial place, and that it contains the remains of dozens of skeletons. Some of 
the bodies are mummified, and implements are also found. Some years ago a drunken 
white set fire to the place, and there are bushels of charred bones there. Some of these 
skulls sent shew marks of the fire. I have sent some eighty skulls to Dr. J. Barnard 
Davis, who has them all gauged and catalogued.” 
The other crania, thirty- three in number, some of which were accompanied by other 
bones of the skeleton, were contained in boxes labelled Kanakas from Oahu, Sandwich 
Islands, 15 miles from Honolulu.” These skulls are referred to by Prof. H. N. Moseley, 
in his Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger, 1 in the following paragraphs : — 
“ Whilst the ship was at Honolulu, I visited the north-east side of the island and collected at 
Waimanalo, on the estate of Mr. John Cumming, a series of native skulls from a deserted burial-place. 
The burials are amongst dunes of calcareous sand, and the bones are exposed by the shifting of the 
sands by the wind. The burials are often on the sides of the gullies between the dunes. They have 
probably been made in this locality because of the ease with which the sand is excavated. Similar 
burials occur at various spots around the coast of Oahu, and I know of no place where so abundant 
material is ready at hand for the study of the skeletal peculiarities of a savage race, by the examination 
of long series of crania and skeletons, as here. Other burials occur in caves inland, where the bodies 
are found in a dried mummy-like condition. 
“ All the bodies at Waimanalo were buried in a doubled-up posture. One which was exhumed with 
care in situ, was buried with the knees bent up to the chest and the head bent forwards, and was 
placed resting horizontally on the back. Chips and fragments of basalt were found around all the 
graves, but no implements of stone.” 
Hawaii . — As the four crania from Waimea, Hawaii, possessed a strong family resem- 
blance to each other, I shall in the first instance describe their characters. They were 
all adults, and apparently males. 
Norma verticalis. — Broad-headed, parietal tubera prominent. They were scarcely 
ridged in the sagittal region ; the sides of the cranium were almost vertical below the 
1 London, 1879. 
