REPORT ON THE HUMAN CRANIA. 
73 
CHATHAM ISLANDERS (MORIORI). 
Plate VII. Tables XIII., XVIII., XIX. 
Four crania, viz. : three adults and one child were collected. They were presented by 
the Colonial Museum of New Zealand, and formed a part of the large collection of crania 
from these islands obtained in 1872 by Mr. Travers. I have examined, along with these 
crania, three other specimens, also collected by Mr. Travers, which were presented some 
years ago to the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh, by Dr. Hector, a 
skull recently presented by Mr. A. H. Williams, and one from Au nui (great cloud), 
Wharekauri, on the north side of Chatham Island, formerly belonging to Dr. Handysicle, 
and now in the University Museum. The crania were probably those of six men, two 
women, and a child, aged about six years. 
Norma verticalis . — Most of the skulls had no marked antero-posterior elongation. 
The parietal tubera were prominent, and gave the appearance of breadth in the parietal 
region. There was a tendency in some of the skulls to a ridge-like elevation in the 
sagittal line. The cranial vault was flattened from that line outwards to the tubera, but 
with not much slope. The sides of the skull were almost vertical below the tubera. 
All the crania were phsenozygous, except that of the child. As a rule the greatest 
width of the skull was at or near the parietal eminences. In four specimens the Stephanie 
diameter exceeded slightly the asterionic ; in four the asterionic was somewhat greater 
than the Stephanie ; in one they were equal. 
Norma lateralis . — The adults all rested behind on the tips of the mastoid processes, 
except one, which rested on the occipital crest ; but the child’s skull touched the cerebellar 
occipital fossae. The male crania were massive and heavy, with strong temporal ridges, 
and marked duplicity of these ridges was observed in the skulls. Owing to the 
especial prominence of the temporal ridges in the male skulls, these crania had a definite 
line of demarcation between the upper and lower halves of the parietal bone, so that in 
the norma occipitalis the skulls had the pentagonal form so well represented by Hyrtl in 
a Chatham Island skull. 1 One of the male skulls weighed with the lower jaw, 2 lbs. 
7 oz. avoir., another 2 lbs. 6^ oz. The glabella and supraciliary ridges, more especially 
in one specimen, were projecting, and the frontal bone sloped from them upwards and 
backwards ; the backward slope of the forehead was very marked in several of the males. 
In two specimens the ophryo-occipital length was 5 mm. less than the glabello- occipital. 
From a little in front of the obelion the vault sloped downwards and backwards to the 
occipital point, but there was no evidence of artificial flattening. The occipital scpiama 
projected beyond the protuberance, but only very slightly in three specimens. The 
1 Die doppelten Schlafelinien, &c., Denksclir. d. k. Akad. d. Wiss. Wien, 1871. 
(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. — PART XXIX.— 1884.) 
Ff 10 
